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Sea otter awareness week 2024: Otter-ly amazing facts – BBC
May
You are more likely to see an otter today in the UK than ever before, yet their shy nature can still make them difficult to spot in rivers and on the coast.
Sea otters are an endangered species and it's hoped raising awareness about them will help protect them.
Sea Otter Awareness Week is run by a charity which hopes to highlight the marine mammals, how important they are and look at the challenges they face in the wild.
Want to know more about these 'otter-ly' amazing animals? Keep reading for fun facts about them!
Sea otters use tools to open hard-shelled prey
This giant otter is helping to save his species
Otter-ly amazing! The 'otter hospital' to help care for cubs
Sea otters can be found along the coast of the Pacific Ocean in North America and Asia including parts of the Russian East coast, and Japan.
According to Birmingham Sea Life Centre, 90% of them live in Alaska
They each lots of sea urchins and are considered to be a keystone species in the ecosystem for keeping balance in their environment.
Sea otters can live their whole life without leaving the water, according to the World Wildlife Fund for Nature (WWF) and have been known to hold their breath for more than five minutes at a time.
They have really dense fur, which means there's millions of hair follicles in just one square inch of their body. It helps to keep them warm because unlike other marine mammals, they don't have blubber.
They keep themselves really clean and spend most of their time grooming if they're not eating or sleeping. That's because if their fur is dirty, it can't trap air which is what's needed to keep them warm.
Sea otters hold paws while they sleep
Otters have pockets! Well, kind of.
They have a baggy pouch of loose skin under each armpit where they can store food or rocks.
They like to keep their favourite rocks in their 'pockets' because they're one of the few mammal species to use tools to help them hunt. They use it like a hammer to crack open clams and crab shells.
According to WWF, sea otters are the only marine mammal to catch fish with its paws and not its mouth.
A sea otter pup has such dense fur that they can't dive under water right away
Sea otters hold paws while they sleep. It helps them to stick together and not drift apart in the water while they're having a snooze.
They can have babies at any time of year.
A sea otter pup's fur is so thick and holds so much air that they can't dive underwater until they have an adult coat.
What's your favourite sea otter fact? Are there any we've missed off the list? Let us know in the comments below!
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