How Do California Sea Otters Survive Atmospheric Rivers?
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- Опубліковано 1 чер 2024
- #seaotter #atmosphericriver #kpassionate
How do California sea otters survive storms and atmospheric rivers? A marine biologist answers these questions and explains the amazing ways marine mammals survive nature's fury.
00:00 - Ask a Marine Biologist
00:37 - Atmospheric Rivers Hit California
01:23 - Sea Otter Adaptations
02:15 - Does Rain Bother Otters?
02:55 - Sea Otters Sleeping in Hail
03:18 - Sea Otters Holding Hands
03:59 - Sea Otters Habitat
04:38 - Elephant Seals
06:01 - Sea Otter Pup Rescue Story
07:34 - KPassionate
Coastal storms have increased in number and frequency. And there is a strong body of evidence that shows that these storms can adversely affect many marine mammals. Including sea otters. Thankfully, sea otters are almost perfectly adapted to life in the rainy north Pacific. With around 600,000 to 1,000,000 hair follicles per square inch hairs per square inch, sea otters have the densest fur coat in the animal kingdom. Sea otter fur also has two layers. Long, waterproof guard hairs and a soft dense underfur that traps a layer of air to provide additional insulation.
But not so much the rain or hail that is the problem… but wind and waves. Anyone who has ever swam in the ocean knows that waves push you in directions you don’t want to go. So sea otters hold hands to keep from washing away. This behavior is known as rafting and sea otters tend to raft up in areas shielded from heavy wind and waves in estuaries, coves, and especially kelp forests.
But not all marine mammals are as well adapted to weathering these storms. Seals and sea lion pups are especially vulnerable to heavy rain and high winds. This winter, a string of NINE consecutive atmospheric rivers hit the West coast, causing epic storm surges that tragically swept a large number of newborn elephant seals out to sea.
While sea otters are typically better than pinnipeds at weathering storms… weather related strandings do occur. You might recognize one example. A sea otter I worked with named Katmai.
Katmai the Sea Otter's Rescue Story
[1] www.homernews.com/news/otter-...
[2] www.zooborns.com/zooborns/201...
[3] alaskapublic.org/2013/03/26/r....
Sea Otter Savvy Original Video
[1] / 1629894584812867585
Cited Sources
[1] www.nature.com/articles/s4159...
[2] www.sacbee.com/news/californi...
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Love seeing your excitement when discussing these issues! Not going to lie, I'd never thought about the seals, elephant seals, sea lions, otters, walruses much when a storm came up.
Good info to get out there, just so people know. Especially if they are playing tourist in aquariums or driving Highway 1 in California. Always a great stop in San Simeon to see the Elephant seals. Hey, looks like 100k subs might be soon?!! All we need is 11500 more wicked smaht people to subscribe.
I know! I can’t believe we are closing in on that mark!!
I was the one who brought up the Elephant Seals as corollary to this. They are so fascinating, but -- unlike Harbor Seals (puppiing season starts around early March) and California Sea Lions (pupping season starts in April) -- Northern Elephant Seals are migratory from thousands of miles away and *their* pupping season starts...January 1st. And late December/January/February are peak winter storm season on the west coast. Nursing pups can't swim. This year put those beaches underwater with storm surges and king tides for multiple consecutive days. So either the colonies will move to other areas (hard with coastal development) or they will start reversing their recovery success story.
This event may also affect Gray Whale migration mortality. The Great White Sharks wait offshore for the various Elephant Seal migrations (which has caused increased shark bite mortality in Southern Sea Otters in certain areas). With less food available in the form of Elephant Seals, more than usual may divert to hunting whales as the Gray Whales migrate back concurrent to when the Elephant Seals leave. But since the ones who lost their pups left early and in a more staggered way, and there are less weanling pups generally, if the whales had a good year calving, they could be more on the menu than usual or else the sharks may move to places they are not expected to be.
@Valerie Starkgraf yeah, thanks for the heads up on the elephant seals. That was a big help!
@@valstarkgraf Awesome info Valerie! Thanks!
I'll subscribe right now...
After watching this video, I've totally forgotten how I happened upon this video/channel 😂 but I'm thoroughly impressed with the number of subs in just a couple short years (said she started the channel in 2020?!)!
Yikes! That weather is so scary and the otters were just chillin! I would not fare well as a sea otter! 🤣
Also, just noticed you're inching close to 100k subscribers!! 🎉🥳
Also, my husband just had an interesting question...
If a wild sea otter were to come across a bucket out in the ocean, would it be as obsessed with it as their rescued counterparts are? 😂
@@Meeesa hahaha I think so!!
Oh sweetheart, you're a marine biologist? How fascinating, what passion. Thank you so much for what you do for our underwater families. God bless you & yours❤️❤️❤️
Otters have no buisness being as cute at they are, River and Sea Otters are far to cute for their own good and i swear when you look at them you can tell they know it lol. Sea Otters are cuter than River Otters but not by much, they both have an air of being to smart or mischievous little devils. I blame Joey for my recent love of otters, he captured my heart with the video where he screamed at his toy and shook his head violently. I dont know if i really looked at an otter before 2020 but now i wish i could own one or atleast go swimming with a group of them.
I would definitely not recommend swimming with them! Very dangerous for you and stressful for them. But seeing wild ones from a distance is great!
Thank you KP!😍🥰😍
You're welcome 😊
South American sea lions look like they were drawn by someone who didn't know what sea lions look like lol
100 percent 😂
Mad Respect From this human swimmer to our furry friends in the ocean.
Mad respect to an ocean swimmer! Lol
Tellement passionnant!!! Pauvre bébé sea lions :'(. Merci KP!!!
Merci beaucoup mon ami!!!
@@KPassionate de rien :) à bientôt
Thank you for sharing your knowledge and passion for marine creatures
with us!
Thou openest thine hand, and satisfiest the desire of every living thing. Psalm 145:16The eyes of all wait upon thee; and thou givest them their meat in due season. Psalm 145:15
Loved this video! I had never seen a clip of wild sea otters in stormy / windy conditions before - amazing how they seem to just float and ride the waves!
Hope they all stay safe in the storms!
Thank you for making this video! Hearing about the weather in SoCal I was concerned about the flooding and otters managing in Morro Bay. A google search led me right here and I’m so grateful to have found your channel.
Thanks for watching! Sea otters are pretty resilient, especially the adults.
Gibson at Georgia Aquarium was also rescued due to a storm in California. They were able to find his mother but couldn’t reunite them due to the storm’s intensity. There’s a UA-cam video on his rescue too for those interested.
It was heartbreaking.
Wow that’s incredible! Thanks for the info!
@@KPassionate his story is also featured on a season 1 episode 8 of The Aquarium on Animal Planet. I miss that show 🥺
@@kristinann987 I do too! I was SO hoping they would do more seasons of it. I still have the episodes recorded - and I watch them over and over!
@@peanutsmom4785 I watch them sometimes on the Discovery+ app. Those were the first sea otters I fell in love with before Joey! My mom and I watched The Aquarium in the spring of 2020 during quarantine.
Lovely video
Thank you!
I love your channel ❤ Keep up the great work 👏👏👏
Thank you!
Thank you for sharing KP 👍❤
You bet!
Thank you for the information. It's sad that sometimes the babies are washed out to sea & most likely, drown or are eaten by sharks.
The life of wild animals is very scary and uncertain
Thank you for your work I love everything you explain in this channel!
One question that I have is if marine otters 🦦 keep family boundaries or they loose them when the pups became adults
Thanks 😊
Sea otters don’t stay with their moms after they are weaned. They head out into the world and do their own thing. There isn’t really a "family" unit with sea otters
@@KPassionate thanks a lot for answering my question ! 😸😸😸
so fun and cute
Thanks for watching!
It seems like they would go under the decks if available?! Guess it must not bother them too much!
KP should you always wear a mask when you are in the aquarium or is this since the pandemic?
We wear masks currently only with our otters. That’s because weasels like otters are particularly prone to corona virus. I think in general if you are outdoors then masks aren’t necessary unless you feel ill!
@@KPassionate I was fascinated to learn that the sea otters in California aquariums (Monterey Bay and Sea World) had actually been vaccinated!
@@KPassionate Thank you!
@@peanutsmom4785 yeah it’s super cool!
❤❤❤❤
TOO Cute 🥰
I suppose they could have gone under the pier?
First !
That was fast lol
Do any wildlife groups go out and survey the otter habitats after storms in search of babies that might be lost or stranded?
When and where it is possible, yes. In Monterey Bay for example. It is more difficult to survey northern sea otter populations who live in remote areas of western Washington, northern British Columbia, and the Aleutian Islands but it is done occasionally.
Protect the sea kelp forests, get rid of of shoreline oil rigs,
They are crackde the code of survival
Totally!
Have you heard the latest about Lolita?
Yes. It seems to be a bit of a publicity stunt since no permits or permissions have been obtained from NOAA. So still nothing seems likely nothing will change.
Apakah kalian tau ini hewan apa coba kasih tau dong 😊
2:00 mark mistakes were made
Incredibly very very cool critters = all otters...!
Of f ourss yes they are all meat eaters and good at it...!
Now the Island where a wolf pack wiped out their deer prey are now living by killing Sea Otters = NOT cool...!
Good stewardship dictates a choice and wolves should lose being there's lots of'em...!!!
Wolves gotta eat too! They’re are probably more sea otters than wolves in North America lol