Aquarium of the Pacific shows off newest sea otter
4-month-old pup, who was found without his mother, can't be rehabilitated and released
A new face has appeared in the Sea Otter Habitat at the Aquarium of the Pacific.
A 4-month-old rescued sea otter pup, who was found stranded without its mother in Carmel-by-the-Sea, recently made Long Beach its home, the aquarium announced last week.
The young male pup was found on April 12 at about 4 weeks old. He was taken to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, where staff attempted to pair him with a surrogate mother in the hopes of one day releasing him back into the wild, according to a recent news release.
After multiple unsuccessful pairing attempts, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service deemed him non-releasable.
The Long Beach aquarium has an otter habitat that currently only houses otters that can't be put back in the wild.
“At the age that he was when he was stranded and the lack of bonding with the surrogate caused him to be non-releasable,” said Megan Smylie, senior mammalogist at the Aquarium of the Pacific. “His success without a mother at that age, going back into the ocean would not be good.”
The pup arrived at the Aquarium of the Pacific last month, about the time the Long Beach facility experienced a sudden death: Betty the sea otter died unexpectedly in midJuly; she was 10 years old, around middleage for a female otter in captivity and with no known health issues.
The arrival of the new pup, though, continued a trend of young otters moving in since December.
When he got to Long Beach, the pup was put into a behind-the-scenes pool so he could meet the other otters for the first time — in a controlled environment that allowed staff to look after him.
The pup met a resident adult sea otter, Chloe, who has lived with other otters in the exhibit at the aquarium since arriving when she was 3 months old. She has helped introduce other pups into their new environment in the past.
“Chloe and the pup are socializing well together and have formed a close bond,” Brett
Long, the aquarium's curator of marine mammals and birds, said in a statement last week.
Sea otters naturally live in social populations, Smylie said, so the aquarium tries to mimic that same dynamic as closely as possible, which is why pairing the new pup with Chloe was important.
“There was a lot of sniffing, which is a great communication tactic between those animals,” Smylie said. “She showed him some toys and she taught him how to be comfortable in these environments.”
After being in the pool for about 10 days, the pup transitioned into the aquarium's sea otter habitat.
“He's very confident,” Smylie said.
And now, the public has the chance to name him.
The aquarium is offering the chance to help name the new sea otter through its Adopt an Animal program, which helps fund education and conservation initiatives, animal rehabilitation work and animal breeding efforts.
Those who virtually adopt the pup by Sept. 30 at the $100 level or above will be able to submit a naming suggestion for him. The donation also will help the aquarium continue providing support and care for the sea otter's needs.
If the suggestion is chosen by the aquarium's animal care team, the person who suggested it will be invited to a feeding and training session with one of the animals at the aquarium.
“It's really fun to see what people come up with,” Smylie said, “and we're just so grateful that people are willing to support our program.”
If people decide to go visit the new resident, he can be identified by the slightly lighter fur on his face. His blond eyebrows and cheeks will make him easy to spot.
This pup, though, is not the only new one to recently arrive at the aquarium. Four other rescued young sea otters have arrived since December, according to a news release.
The Long Beach and Monterey Bay aquariums formed a partnership two years ago that was meant to increase how many otters can be prepared for life in the wild simultaneously.
Monterey Bay has long housed otters that, through a surrogacy program, eventually get released back to the wild; that surrogacy program uses non-releasable female otters to educate pups.
The Long Beach aquarium takes in those that can't be released into the wild. But that will soon change. The Long Beach facility is a couple of weeks away from completing construction on its new surrogacy pools, which will allow the Aquarium of the Pacific — with guidance from its northern colleague — to also prepare otters to return to the wild, Smylie said.
“We're so grateful that we get to partner with them,” Smylie said, “in order to expand that capacity and really double the amount of otters that eventually will be able to go back out into the ocean.”
For more information on suggesting a name for the new sea otter, go to pacific. to/adoptpup.