1 00:00:01,920 --> 00:00:06,440 Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio. Hey 2 00:00:06,480 --> 00:00:10,960 Speaker 1: brain Stuff Lauren Bogelbaum. Here. The sea otters are basically 3 00:00:11,039 --> 00:00:16,880 Speaker 1: the party animals of the sea. They're intelligent, rambunctious, chatty, curious, gregarious, 4 00:00:16,920 --> 00:00:22,160 Speaker 1: and they're unequivocally objectively on the definitive shortlist of cutest 5 00:00:22,200 --> 00:00:26,080 Speaker 1: adult animal whoever is keeping track of that inventory these days. 6 00:00:26,880 --> 00:00:29,480 Speaker 1: Their babies are also in the running for cutest baby animal, 7 00:00:29,560 --> 00:00:32,320 Speaker 1: which is saying something as the competition is much stiffer 8 00:00:32,360 --> 00:00:37,159 Speaker 1: in that division. And aside from their sparkling personalities and fluffy, 9 00:00:37,240 --> 00:00:41,160 Speaker 1: grinning faces, sea otters are also the glue that keeps 10 00:00:41,159 --> 00:00:46,560 Speaker 1: their ecosystem together. Sea otters are in the weasel family, 11 00:00:46,880 --> 00:00:50,640 Speaker 1: native to the North Pacific Ocean from California north along 12 00:00:50,640 --> 00:00:53,320 Speaker 1: the Pacific coasts and islands of Alaska and down the 13 00:00:53,360 --> 00:00:57,319 Speaker 1: eastern edge of the Kanchaca Peninsula of Russia. Since they 14 00:00:57,360 --> 00:01:00,440 Speaker 1: spend most of their lives bobbing around in chilly waters, 15 00:01:00,600 --> 00:01:03,440 Speaker 1: using rocks and things to break shellfish open on their bellies, 16 00:01:03,760 --> 00:01:05,840 Speaker 1: and they don't have a bunch of blubber to keep 17 00:01:05,920 --> 00:01:09,680 Speaker 1: them warm like seals and walruses do, sea otters possess 18 00:01:09,760 --> 00:01:13,319 Speaker 1: the densest fur in the animal kingdom. While you and 19 00:01:13,400 --> 00:01:16,120 Speaker 1: I probably have fewer than a hundred thousand hairs on 20 00:01:16,160 --> 00:01:19,280 Speaker 1: our entire heads, that many hairs can be found on 21 00:01:19,319 --> 00:01:21,840 Speaker 1: a single square inch that's six and a half square 22 00:01:21,840 --> 00:01:25,880 Speaker 1: centimeters of a sea otter's body, but what keeps them 23 00:01:25,920 --> 00:01:29,920 Speaker 1: cozy can be a liability in some cases. For the 24 00:01:30,000 --> 00:01:32,360 Speaker 1: article this episode is based on House to Work, spoke 25 00:01:32,440 --> 00:01:35,560 Speaker 1: with Terry M. Williams, professor in the Department of Ecology 26 00:01:35,600 --> 00:01:39,080 Speaker 1: and Evolutionary Biology at the University of California, Santa Cruz, 27 00:01:39,600 --> 00:01:42,279 Speaker 1: and she said the problem with the sea otters unique 28 00:01:42,280 --> 00:01:44,640 Speaker 1: fur is that it can't get dirty, so they spend 29 00:01:44,640 --> 00:01:46,720 Speaker 1: a lot of time grooming it to keep it clean. 30 00:01:47,360 --> 00:01:50,800 Speaker 1: The exon Veldez oil spill of killed more than a 31 00:01:50,840 --> 00:01:53,800 Speaker 1: thousand sea otters in Prince William's Sound because their fur 32 00:01:53,960 --> 00:01:57,720 Speaker 1: was contaminated with oil. Our team spent months cleaning them. 33 00:01:58,080 --> 00:02:01,360 Speaker 1: The bottom line, though, is oil and otters don't mix. 34 00:02:02,840 --> 00:02:05,080 Speaker 1: Aside from the fact that sea otter fur needs to 35 00:02:05,120 --> 00:02:08,280 Speaker 1: be kept clean and fluffable, or else it stops insulating 36 00:02:08,280 --> 00:02:11,960 Speaker 1: them and they freeze to death, humans have unfortunately noticed 37 00:02:12,000 --> 00:02:16,440 Speaker 1: how luxurious their coats are Between the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, 38 00:02:16,560 --> 00:02:20,680 Speaker 1: the European fur trade decimated sea otter populations throughout their range. 39 00:02:22,360 --> 00:02:25,880 Speaker 1: By the early nineteen hundreds, about fifty California sea otters, 40 00:02:26,080 --> 00:02:29,240 Speaker 1: the subspecies living along the southern coast of California, remained 41 00:02:29,280 --> 00:02:32,960 Speaker 1: in the wild. But thanks to the International fur Seal 42 00:02:33,000 --> 00:02:36,400 Speaker 1: Treaty of nineteen eleven, the Marine Mammal Protection Act, and 43 00:02:36,520 --> 00:02:40,160 Speaker 1: the Endangered Species Act of the nineteen seventies, California sea 44 00:02:40,200 --> 00:02:43,280 Speaker 1: otters were able to make a partial comeback. About three 45 00:02:43,320 --> 00:02:49,160 Speaker 1: thousand live on the California coast today. Williams said in California, 46 00:02:49,320 --> 00:02:52,760 Speaker 1: sea otters have reached carrying capacity in Monterey Bay. In 47 00:02:52,800 --> 00:02:55,360 Speaker 1: other words, there's just enough food for the sea otters 48 00:02:55,400 --> 00:02:58,399 Speaker 1: currently living there. For the population to grow, it would 49 00:02:58,480 --> 00:03:01,640 Speaker 1: need to move to a new area. However, white sharks 50 00:03:01,639 --> 00:03:05,080 Speaker 1: are believed to be keeping the otters from moving. In Alaska, 51 00:03:05,200 --> 00:03:08,640 Speaker 1: killer whales have taken out large numbers of the population 52 00:03:08,760 --> 00:03:11,799 Speaker 1: of sea otters along the Aleutian Islands. The picture is 53 00:03:11,840 --> 00:03:14,720 Speaker 1: happier in the Cordova area, where sea otters seem to 54 00:03:14,760 --> 00:03:19,760 Speaker 1: be booming thanks to that nose dive. In sea otter populations, 55 00:03:19,919 --> 00:03:23,079 Speaker 1: it's easy to see that these fuzzy marine goofballs are 56 00:03:23,200 --> 00:03:27,240 Speaker 1: actually extremely important to the ecology of the North Pacific Seashore. 57 00:03:28,120 --> 00:03:32,000 Speaker 1: For starters, their populations help make for healthy kelp forests, 58 00:03:32,360 --> 00:03:36,440 Speaker 1: the dense underwater jungles of tall algile strands the make 59 00:03:36,560 --> 00:03:40,760 Speaker 1: coastal marine ecosystems in the North Pacific what they are see. 60 00:03:40,800 --> 00:03:44,640 Speaker 1: Otters service every part of these kelp forests. Because they 61 00:03:44,680 --> 00:03:46,520 Speaker 1: have to eat a quarter to a third of their 62 00:03:46,560 --> 00:03:50,120 Speaker 1: body weight daily and spend between ten and twelve hours 63 00:03:50,120 --> 00:03:54,640 Speaker 1: each day finding food. Individuals within a population naturally sort 64 00:03:54,720 --> 00:03:59,320 Speaker 1: themselves into specialized eating groups or dietary guilds, the preferences 65 00:03:59,320 --> 00:04:03,360 Speaker 1: for which are asked from mother to pump. Which guild 66 00:04:03,360 --> 00:04:05,920 Speaker 1: and otter occupies has to do with the depth at 67 00:04:05,920 --> 00:04:09,080 Speaker 1: which it likes to find food. Some otters dive deep 68 00:04:09,160 --> 00:04:12,120 Speaker 1: and end up nabbing things like sea urchins and dungeness 69 00:04:12,160 --> 00:04:15,160 Speaker 1: crabs off the sea floor, while others find their favorite 70 00:04:15,160 --> 00:04:17,640 Speaker 1: foods at mid range depths of about forty feet that's 71 00:04:17,640 --> 00:04:22,240 Speaker 1: twelve meters, collecting small shellfish and worms. A third group 72 00:04:22,279 --> 00:04:26,560 Speaker 1: prefers to forage around in shallow waters for snails. In 73 00:04:26,560 --> 00:04:29,400 Speaker 1: this way, a population of sea otters can really work 74 00:04:29,520 --> 00:04:32,160 Speaker 1: the kelped forest at every level, helping it to stay 75 00:04:32,160 --> 00:04:34,920 Speaker 1: healthy and resilient in the way that only a top 76 00:04:34,960 --> 00:04:39,840 Speaker 1: predator can well. One way scientists have helped sea otters 77 00:04:39,880 --> 00:04:43,159 Speaker 1: make a comeback in California is by pairing orphaned otter 78 00:04:43,200 --> 00:04:46,640 Speaker 1: babies with captive surrogate moms that can't be released into 79 00:04:46,640 --> 00:04:49,760 Speaker 1: the wild. For the past thirty years, the Monterey Bay 80 00:04:49,760 --> 00:04:53,080 Speaker 1: Aquarium has been pairing stranded babies with adult female otters 81 00:04:53,160 --> 00:04:56,600 Speaker 1: in the aquariums Sea Autter Program, and the experiment has 82 00:04:56,600 --> 00:05:00,160 Speaker 1: been wildly successful. It turns out female sea otters are 83 00:05:00,200 --> 00:05:02,440 Speaker 1: more than happy to raise a baby that's not their own. 84 00:05:03,279 --> 00:05:06,640 Speaker 1: Since it started, in more than seven hundred adults and 85 00:05:06,680 --> 00:05:10,440 Speaker 1: puffs have moved through the Sea Outer program. Houst To 86 00:05:10,560 --> 00:05:13,719 Speaker 1: Works also spoke with Kyle Van Houtson, a chief scientist 87 00:05:13,800 --> 00:05:17,360 Speaker 1: at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. He said, in our latest study, 88 00:05:17,480 --> 00:05:20,400 Speaker 1: we showed that surrogate reared otters in their offspring account 89 00:05:20,400 --> 00:05:23,480 Speaker 1: for over half the population growth in some areas. We're 90 00:05:23,560 --> 00:05:27,039 Speaker 1: just starting to see the extensive and positive impacts associated 91 00:05:27,080 --> 00:05:31,000 Speaker 1: with a growing and healthy outter population. Today, many of 92 00:05:31,000 --> 00:05:34,960 Speaker 1: our state's ecologically degraded estuaries could benefit from sea Otter's return. 93 00:05:35,720 --> 00:05:37,920 Speaker 1: So while we knew this was a great program and 94 00:05:38,000 --> 00:05:41,640 Speaker 1: a feel good story, now we know it's also great science. 95 00:05:43,279 --> 00:05:45,640 Speaker 1: There may come a time when you see more sea 96 00:05:45,640 --> 00:05:48,160 Speaker 1: otters frolicking in the waves off the coast of California. 97 00:05:48,560 --> 00:05:52,520 Speaker 1: But don't get too close, Williams said. Sea otters have 98 00:05:52,560 --> 00:05:56,560 Speaker 1: been nicknamed chainsaws in a Burlepp bag. They have enormously 99 00:05:56,640 --> 00:06:00,240 Speaker 1: powerful jaws, perfect for cracking the shells of clam and 100 00:06:00,480 --> 00:06:04,120 Speaker 1: easily breaking fingers. So as cute as otters look, they 101 00:06:04,160 --> 00:06:07,200 Speaker 1: can be unpredictable and can deliver a really nasty bite. 102 00:06:07,600 --> 00:06:15,840 Speaker 1: Give them wide space in the wild. Today's episode is 103 00:06:15,880 --> 00:06:18,479 Speaker 1: based on the article see Honors are the Party Animals 104 00:06:18,520 --> 00:06:20,760 Speaker 1: to see on how stuff works dot com, written by 105 00:06:20,839 --> 00:06:23,600 Speaker 1: Jesselyn Shields. Brain Stuff is production of by Heart Radio 106 00:06:23,680 --> 00:06:25,520 Speaker 1: in partnership with how stuff works dot Com, and it 107 00:06:25,600 --> 00:06:28,400 Speaker 1: is produced by Tyler Clang. Or more podcasts from my 108 00:06:28,400 --> 00:06:31,360 Speaker 1: heart Radio, visit the i Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, 109 00:06:31,440 --> 00:06:33,240 Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.