Animal · United States, Canada, Russia
Sea otter
Enhydra lutris — the name this animal has in the language scientists everywhere share.
The sea otter has the densest fur of any animal, with up to a million hairs per square inch, keeping it warm without a layer of blubber. It lives in kelp forests along the North Pacific coast.
Picture credit: Mike Baird (CC BY 2.0) · Marshal Hedin (CC BY-SA 2.0) · Diego Delso (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Wikimedia Commons
Where does the sea otter live?
Home: Coastal kelp forests of the North Pacific Ocean.
In the wild you find it in: United States, Canada, Russia, Japan.
Conservation status from the IUCN: endangered.
The short profile
Fully grown it measures 1–1.5 m long. It weighs about 27 kilograms. On the menu: meat.
The story behind it
Sea otters spend almost their entire life in the water, even sleeping while floating on their backs, and often wrap themselves in strands of kelp so the current does not carry them away while they nap. To stay warm without blubber, an otter must eat about a quarter of its body weight in food every day, diving to crack open sea urchins, crabs and shellfish, sometimes using a rock as a tool to smash open tough shells while floating on its chest. By eating huge numbers of sea urchins, otters help keep kelp forests healthy, since urchins would otherwise destroy the kelp that many other species depend on. Hunted almost to extinction for their fur in the 1700s and 1800s, sea otters have slowly recovered in some areas but remain endangered overall.
Find it on the globe
Sea otter is there as a tiny animated figure that breathes and looks around. From far away the planet is only a blue ball; detail arrives as you zoom in, and this one appears once you are close enough. Open it on the globe.
It sits at its real coordinates, not near them — the same numbers listed in the facts above. Switch off the layer for this kind of place and it disappears again; the buttons for that are down the right-hand edge.
Questions children ask
Why do sea otters hold hands?
Sea otters often hold paws, or wrap themselves in kelp, while resting or sleeping to stop themselves and their pups from drifting apart on the current. Groups of resting otters are charmingly called a 'raft'.
Do sea otters use tools?
Yes, sea otters are one of the few animals known to use tools regularly. They often carry a favourite rock, which they use to smash open tough shellfish like clams and mussels while floating on their back.
Why are sea otters endangered?
Sea otters were hunted almost to extinction for their thick fur during the 1700s and 1800s. Although protection has helped some populations recover, many groups remain small and vulnerable to oil spills, disease and food shortages.
Where these numbers come from
Every figure on this page was checked against public reference sources before publication. Where sources genuinely disagree, the text says so.
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