Today I want to write about one of the most fascinating animals in the world, the sea otter.
Here are five interesting facts about them:
- These beautiful animals are the smallest marine mammals in the world, measuring just 148 cm long.
- Most marine mammals rely on a layer of blubber to keep them warm, but sea otters don’t have any. Instead, they have the thickest coat in the animal kingdom, with 100,000 hairs per square cm.
- They live around kelp forests and tie themselves to kelp when they sleep so that they don’t float away with the current.
- They are excellent swimmers and can dive up to 75 metres down to catch mussels, crabs and sea urchins. They have a small flap of skin in their armpits that they store their food in while they swim to the surface. They then float on their back, using their tummy as a table while they eat. They also use stones to smash open hard shells.
- Sea otters live in coastal areas along the north Pacific Ocean. They were once hunted in great numbers for their fur, but have recovered since hunting was banned in 1911.
I hope that you found these facts interesting and learned something new.
Are there any other interesting facts that you would like to share about sea otters?
haha