A Note To Parents: We make every effort for Roxanne's blog to be a SAFE site for children. Whenever possible, activities are in pdf format or link to safe sites for children. Please feel free to use the information in these posts for homeschool studies! All rights reserved by author and nature photographer, Virginia Parker Staat.

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Sea Otters


The sea otter is one of my most favorite animals. They love the water and they always look so happy!

Sea otters are fantastic swimmers. Most of the time, they live their entire lives in the ocean. They can dive very deep for their favorite foods like clams and sea urchins. When they reach the surface, they float on their backs and use their bellies as a table to eat their meal.

Sea otters have the thickest fur of any mammal. Their thick fur keeps them warm, even in the very cold waters off Alaska and Canada. In fact, sea otters almost became extinct because trappers killed so many for their fur. Today otters are protected from being hunted.

When a baby sea otter is born, his mother takes very good care of him. He spends most of his time traveling on top of her belly.

Mom took these photos of otters when we went on the ferry to Seldovia.

For more information about sea otters, just click on one of these links: http://www.canadiangeographic.ca/kids/animal-facts/pdf/sea_otter.pdf
AND
http://www.canadiangeographic.ca/kids/animal-facts/pdf/sea_otter.pdf

You can also check out these great books from your library:

Lootas, Little Wave Eater: An Orphaned Sea Otter’s Story, by Clare Hodgson Meeker
Sea Otter Inlet , by Celia Godkin
Sea Otter Rescue: The Aftermath of an Oil Spill, by Roland Smith



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