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For larger, heavier-shelled prey, otters will sometimes exhibit tool-use behavior, breaking open sea urchins and mussels with a false stone used as an anvil. Sea otters can also bite sea urchins and mussels open using their strong jaws and teeth. Adults can crush most of their food items but youngsters have not yet developed powerful enough jaws.
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.
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]
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 ...
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.
Under each foreleg, the sea otter (Enhydra lutris) has a loose pouch of skin that extends across the chest. In this pouch (preferentially the left side), the animal stores collected food to bring to the surface. Otters are also known to keep rocks in this "pocket" that they use to crack open clams and shellfish. [101]
Rosa was adopted by the Monterey Bay Aquarium in 1999 and served as surrogate mother for a record 15 otters. She outlived the life expectancy for wild southern sea otters.
The sea otter may also pluck snails and other organisms from kelp and dig deep into underwater mud for clams. [83] It is the only marine mammal that catches fish with its forepaws rather than with its teeth. [84] Under each foreleg, the sea otter has a loose pouch of skin that extends across the chest.