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Sea Otter
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- Length
- 4 feet.
- Description
- Thick set, muzzle well beset with bristles presenting much the same appearance as that of the fur seal; tail one-quarter the length of the body. Fore feet rather small, hind feet very large, fully webbed between the toes, teeth curiously blunt and rounded. Body covered with a dense under fur and a longer coarser outer coat as in the fur seal. Colour, black with whitish tips, head and neck grayish or yellowish white.
- Range
- Shores of north Pacific, formerly south to northwestern United States, becoming very scarce everywhere.
- Range
- Lower Middle and South Atlantic States.
- Range
- Florida, southern Georgia and along the Gulf Coast to Louisiana.
This curious and interesting animal of our northwest coast has been reduced to danger of extinction by the fur hunters, who find in its skin the most valuable pelt furnished by any North American quadruped.
H. W. Elliott says of it: “There is no sexual dissimilarity in colour or size, and both parents manifest the same intense shyness and aversion to man, coupled with the greatest solicitude for their young, which they bring into existence at all seasons of the year. As the natives have never caught the mothers bringing forth their offspring on the rocks, they are disposed to believe that their birth takes place on kelp beds in pleasant or not over-rough weather. The female has a single pup, born about fifteen inches in length, and provided during the first month or two with a coat of coarse brownish grizzled fur, head and nape grizzled, grayish, rufous white. The fur is prime at two years, though the animal is not full-grown until its fourth or fifth year.
"The sea otter mother sleeps in the water on her back, with her young clasped between her fore-paws. The pup cannot live without its mother. Their food is almost entirely composed of clams, mussels and sea urchins, of which they are very fond and which they break up by striking the shells together, held in each fore-paw, sucking out the contents as they are fractured by these efforts. They also undoubtedly eat crabs and fish, and the juicy, tender fronds of kelp. They are not polygamous, and more than one individual is seldom seen at a time when out at sea. They are playful, it would seem, for I am assured by several old hunters that they have watched the sea-otter for half an hour as it lay upon its back in the water, and tossed a piece of sea-weed in the air from paw to paw, apparently taking great delight in catching it before it could fall into the water."
Varieties of the Otter
1. Northern Otter. Lutra canadensis Schreber. Description and range as above.
2. Carolina Otter. L. canadensis lataxina (Cuvier). Much lighter brown, becoming pale grayish brown on the throat.
3. Florida Otter. L. canadensis vaga Bangs. Darker and redder than the last but not so black as the Northern otter, almost as dark below as above.
4. Newfoundland Otter. L. degener. Bangs. Very dark, practically black with brown reflections. Size smaller than any of the preceding.