Buzz
If you're an Internet user, you may have come across images or videos featuring a cute, fluffy baby sea otter. (If not, make sure to check her out, then return here.) This particular pup, known as Pup 681, was found alone on the California coast at just a week old and was rescued. She now resides at Chicago's Shedd Aquarium. But Pup 681 isn't the first orphaned otter to receive human help. We spoke with Karl Mayer, the Animal Care Coordinator at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, to understand how the response to stranded southern sea otters works and how Pup 681 ended up at Shedd.
While they don’t physically rescue every stranded sea otter, the Monterey Bay Aquarium, in partnership with the Marine Mammal Center, coordinates the efforts to respond to reports of stranded otters. Each year, the Aquarium manages around 50 to 60 sea otters. Approximately 20 to 30 percent of these are pups, with the rest being sick or injured adults. If the adults' conditions are treatable or curable, they are rehabilitated and returned to the wild, but sadly, humane euthanasia is sometimes the only option. Here's what happens when the otter in need is a pup.
Option 1: Locate the Mother
The first thing to do is search for the mother. "We rarely know the exact cause of the separation, so we typically assume it’s an accidental parting from the mother and there might be a chance to reunite them," Mayer explains. "When sea otter pups and mothers get separated, both are vocal. If we hear an adult calling offshore and find a vocalizing pup on the beach, we try to get the pup close to the mother, as she will often approach to retrieve her pup if we bring them near enough."
Only about 10 percent of stranded pups are successfully reunited with their mothers, and the opportunity is brief—if the mother doesn’t find her pup within a few hours, she gives up. When Pup 681 was first reported, evening was approaching, and due to the darkness, Mayer's team couldn’t move her. They decided to leave her on the beach overnight, hoping her mother would return. When that didn’t happen, they moved to the next best option.
Option 2: Surrogacy
"The second option is to place the pup in our surrogacy program," says Mayer. "This program pairs stranded pups with one of our permanent captive female sea otters, who is part of our exhibit, to raise them with the aim of returning them to the wild." Although this wasn’t the path for Pup 681, it’s a method worth exploring further.
In 2001, Monterey Bay Aquarium rescued a pregnant sea otter infected with toxoplasmosis, a parasitic disease that causes neurological problems and unsuccessful pregnancies. Shortly after her rescue, she gave birth to a stillborn pup.
"Remarkably, just 24 hours after she gave birth to her own pup, a two-week-old male stranded right here in Monterey. Because of this fortunate timing, we decided, 'Let’s try introducing this pup,'" Mayer explains. The female immediately accepted the pup and began nurturing him. Previously, the Aquarium staff had attempted to hand-rear stranded pups, but had little success releasing them back into the wild due to their strong attachment to humans.
"When we tried releasing them into the wild, they would often approach divers or kayakers," Mayer recalls from earlier attempts. "Eventually, we had to make the difficult decision that the animal either posed a risk to someone, or the person would end up harming the otter, so they would be brought back into captivity." But witnessing the female sea otter care for the orphaned pup inspired the team to develop a new approach. "It opened up an entirely new avenue of possibilities for us, minimizing our involvement as much as possible," Mayer adds.
Now, pups aren’t immediately placed with the female otters for care. Unlike the original surrogate, who had carried a pregnancy to term, the otters currently in the exhibit aren’t hormonally prepared to care for a newborn—they aren’t lactating. So, until the pup is 6 to 8 weeks old, Aquarium staff handle bottle-feeding, introducing solid food, and teaching the pup basic foraging skills.
"We can't be sure that the female will nurse the pup," Mayer states. "However, one of the first maternal behaviors we typically observe in these females is food sharing. When the female dives down to feed, the pup will swim up and show curiosity about what she's eating, which often prompts the female to offer the food to the pup."
The rest of the care routine is equally heartwarming. "The female will carry the pup on her chest, groom it, and even sleep with the pup resting on her chest," Mayer explains. "As their bond deepens, we frequently see the pup trying to nurse from the female."
Pups remain with their surrogate mothers until they reach about six months old, the typical age when weaning occurs in the wild. At this stage, they are equipped with flipper tags and abdominal transmitters, which are surgically implanted to help the Aquarium track the orphans' progress. The results have been promising. Since the program's initiation, over 30 pups have been raised and successfully released, and according to Mayer, "the survival rates of these pups and the reproductive success of female pups are virtually the same as their wild counterparts."
Option 3: Other Aquariums
Monterey Bay Aquarium houses five permanent female sea otters. During the months of surrogacy, these females are kept behind the scenes, meaning only two can care for stranded pups at any given time in order to maintain at least three otters on exhibit. When Pup 681 was rescued, Mayer explains, "the inn was full. We already had two females with dependent pups."
Finding a suitable place for Pup 681 was challenging since few facilities in the United States are equipped to care for sea otters. In captivity, a sea otter consumes about 20 percent of its body weight daily. With females reaching 50 pounds and males growing to 60 or 70 pounds, that’s a significant amount of seafood. Their diet isn’t inexpensive, either—clams, shrimp, squid, crab, and mussels make it quite costly to house a sea otter.
Luckily, Shedd Aquarium offered to take in and care for Pup 681, and the rest, as they say, is adorable Internet history. Watch her arrival at Shedd here:
