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Sea-otter pelts were given in potlatches to mark coming-of-age ceremonies, weddings, and funerals. [70] The Aleuts carved sea otter bones for use as ornaments and in games, and used powdered sea-otter baculum as a medicine for fever. [205] Some Ainu folk-tales portray the sea-otter as an occasional messenger between humans and the creator. [206]
A sea otter using a rock to break open a shell. The sea otter, Enhydra lutris, is a member of the Mustelidae that is fully aquatic. Sea otters are the smallest of the marine mammals, but they are also the most dexterous. Sea otters are known for their ability to use stones as anvils or hammers to facilitate access to hard-to-reach prey items.
On land, sea otters and pinnipeds often perform ‘nosing’ behaviours at prominent scent glands which indicate some level of detection of chemical signals. It was previously perceived that they do not undergo chemical communication underwater, as most of these animals close their nasal opening underwater and the semi-aquatic mammals are known ...
Sea Otters can swim up to six miles per hour and hold their breaths for up to four minutes. They use these skills to dive as deep as 330 feet beneath the surface. 4.
Sea otters also are members of the animal kingdom's tool-wielding club. The researchers observed 196 southern sea otters along the central California coastline - Big Sur, Monterey, San Luis Obispo ...
Experts are struggling to restore the U.S. West Coast’s southern sea otters to their historic range. The effort is part of growing global recognition of the crucial role that predators play ...
Enhydra is a genus of mustelid that contains the sea otter and two extinct relatives. It is the only extant genus of the bunodont otters group, referring to otters with non-blade carnassials with rounded cusps. [1] Sea otters probably diverged from other otters during the Pliocene, approximately 5 mya. [2]
Federal wildlife officials have taken the first step toward potentially reintroducing sea otters to their former habitats in Northern California and Oregon. Sea otters were hunted to near-extinction.