#sea otter pup

[once-upon-a-time-in-the-rest]

It's Sea Otter Awareness Week !

Let's celebrate these lovely and smart marine mammals 🦦

[lilcottoncandyheart]

wishlist sea buddies besties ☆ sea otters 💓💓

[webkinztournament]

[once-upon-a-time-in-the-rest]

SO PURE

worst day ever

[montereybayaquarium]

Tools of the trade

To save the otters, we suit up with flair, In a Darth Vader costume, no need to beware!

With baby bottles in hand, they gulp with delight, A sip for the pups, all tucked in tight.

Towels galore, they twirl and they play, Learning to be otters and growing each day. 

Bite-proof gloves for those tiny sharp jaws, But don’t worry, they still earn our 'awws!'

From the stars to the shore, we gear up and care, For these mighty mustelids who protect kelp forests with flair!

Behind the scenes of sea otter care, our gear is as unique as the otters themselves! From donning a Darth Vader-esque disguise (yes, really!) to using baby bottles for feeding our rescued pups, it takes more than meets the eye to keep these fluffs happy and healthy. 

With stacks of towels for grooming, sturdy bite-proof gloves to handle those curious paws, we’re ready for anything. Otter care is searious  business—but it shore comes with some fun perks!

Tune in later this week to see these otter tools of the trade in action! 

[ltwilliammowett]

Something cute for you - a sleeping sea otter pup

[cornkernelle]

urchin goes to the otters to get some eats. how do they handle this big scary behemoth

Oh boy- well, it's definitely a shock to Pupsy to see another cookie so big. No worries, though, she'll be quick to serve that behemoth regardless ^^

Like, hey, having a hard time picking something from the menu? well, she can tell you their special for the week.

A customer that's a big eater gets them pumped!! In fact, I'm sure the first time he came around Otto gave him an extra lil treat afterwards. Y'know, to eat on the road.

All in all, a customer that they'll definitely remember the name of. Rolling up their sleeves and hyping it up HAHA

[spotsupstuff]

Okay, that ask about if Sparrow was a slug has me thinking how would be Sparrow (not Tinkerer) as a slug?

little fucking... Vydrička 🤌

[peppermintstarsonamintyway]

Spent a few minutes (more like an hour or two) doodling, mostly Marbled Chocolate! With some other people's ocs and Weeping Angel as well- Black Pudding Cookie (third image) by @c00kietin!

Otter Pup Cookie (fourth image) by @cornkernelcorp!

Red Crayfish Cookie (fifth image) by @shipovnikk!

Go look all them n stuff they're funky people :thumbsup:

[badstitched]

This cute sea otter is now in my shops! This pattern was originally for the #earthdaysal but I have revamped it for those that missed the bundle.  This sweet bebe includes SIX variations!! They're holding the earth, a book, a rainbow heart, an otter pup, a starfish, and a skull!  I had to do the skull because I have no self control. Find this sweet, floating water cat in my shops!

[justaballoffluff]

my brain has been almost entirely consumed by knitting and crochet the past few weeks and I don't really know what to do about it. plus I've been working on my term paper for Ancient Egypt, which has taken up a lot of my brain space as of late

went to the Museum of Natural History today and I got a mammoth plush!

her name's Lana since it means "down, soft fleece, wool". plus it follows Tullia the Leopard Shark that I got last year for my birthday

[coldhardbinch]

This week has suuuuucked but Emily suggested we go to the aquarium tomorrow to look at sharks 🥰

[once-upon-a-time-in-the-rest]

this is important ❤️

The sea otter is in good company: its family includes skunks and weasels.

[webkinztournament]

[footloose-travel]

Sea Otter with a pup

[montereybayaquarium]

Remembering Rosa the sea otter

Hello Aquarium family. It’s with great sadness that we share that our beloved sea otter Rosa passed away today. At 24 years old, Rosa was the oldest resident otter at the Aquarium and one of our most experienced surrogate moms, having raised 15 stranded sea otter pups in her time with us. 

While Rosa spent the last few months behind the scenes getting extra special care from our staff, she was the matriarch of the Sea Otters exhibit. Beloved and cherished by millions of visitors and fans of the live Sea Otter Cam, she was instantly recognizable thanks to her blonde head (eclipsed only by Ivy as our most grizzled of kelp grizzlies) and her signature head-all-the-way-back swimming style.

“Rosa was one of our most playful sea otters, and even at 24 years old, she would still be seen frolicking and wrestling with the younger otters when she instigated it,” said Melanie Oerter, curator of mammals. “Rosa was usually found sleeping against the window while on exhibit with her chin tucked tight into her chest and her tail swishing back and forth.”

After being found stranded as a four-week-old pup in September 1999, Rosa became part of the Aquarium family before our sea otter surrogacy program even took shape. Our Sea Otter Program staff raised her by hand for nearly seven months before releasing her to the wild. 

Rosa eventually returned to the Aquarium once again in March 2002 when she didn’t take to life outside of human care, and she immediately became a fixture in the formative years of our sea otter surrogacy program as a caring adoptive mother for rescued pups destined for wild release.

She was a delight to work with, though she certainly had her expectations of our staff according to the many Sea Otter Mammalogists who trained (were trained by?) Rosa over the years. 

"Rosa was an incredibly smart otter! Generally calm and patient with the staff. However, she could be defiant at times and there would be no convincing her to do something she did not want to do," said Oerter. "She would often just look at us or swim away. I believe she was the one who was really training us all of these years. I certainly learned a lot from working with such an incredible otter. It has been a privilege and to say we will miss her is understated."

Rosa relaxed into retirement from surrogacy in 2019, acting as a companion and cornerstone in the ever-changing raft of otters in our care. 

Wild female sea otters live between 15 and 20 years, and reaching the age of 24 is a testament to the exceptional care Rosa received throughout her life from our Veterinary and Animal Care teams. In recent years, she began showing signs of age-related health concerns.  In the last few weeks, her health had been deteriorating. After an exam, the veterinary and animal care teams made the difficult choice to humanely euthanize Rosa because those health conditions were compromising her quality of life. She passed away peacefully, surrounded by her caretakers.

Rosa’s legacy lives on both at the Aquarium with our other resident sea otters Kit, Selka, Ivy, and Ruby, and in the wild, where sea otter pups she raised continue to raise pups of their own, contributing to the recovery of their species and their ecosystems along the California coast. 

Rosa was an inspiration to millions as a charismatic ambassador for her threatened species while playing a leading role in the story of sea otter recovery from near-extinction during the fur trade. Rosa will be greatly missed by all of us who got to know her over the years.

To celebrate Rosa’s long life, please feel free to share photos and stories of your encounters with Rosa at the Aquarium in the comment section on this post, in her memory and for the staff and volunteers grieving her loss. Thank you all for being such a big part of Rosa’s life. 🦦♥️