NOTE: Free essay sample provided on this page should be used for references or sample purposes only. The sample essay is available to anyone, so any direct quoting without mentioning the source will be considered plagiarism by schools, colleges and universities that use plagiarism detection software. To get a completely brand-new, plagiarism-free essay, please use our essay writing service.
One click instant price quote
In the oceans today there are many different types of animals. This includes over 27, 000 different types of bony fish along with thousands of other types of various animals. But would you have thought that an animal that is part of the weasel family lives in the ocean alongside all these other animals? Well it is true. The sea otter is this animal and has adapted well to an oceanic life. The sea otter has differences between the male and female.
As with following with nature the male of the two is the larger animal at approximately four and a half feet in length and weighing in at up to 85 pounds. The female is approximately four feet in length and weighs in at around the 55 -pound mark. A newborn young of the species weighs in at 3 - 5 pounds and is approximately 16 to 22 inches in length. Sea otters do not have the blubber that whales and dolphins do for insulation against the cold.
They use fur as their insulation against the cold of the water. The fur that the sea otter has is the thickest fur of any mammal, with up to one million hairs per square inch. Since the fur is the key to the sea otter staying warm the amount of time that the sea otter must groom himself / herself is several hours a day. This is to keep the fur warm and fluffed full of air for insulation.
If the sea otter was not to groom for several hours a day the fur would become matted and dirty and lose the insulation properties relied on to keep the sea otter warm. This is one of the reasons that oil spills are so devastating to the sea otter. The oil from the spill mats the animals fur and they die from hypothermia. Another little trick that sea otter's use to conserve heat when resting is to remove their paws and hind flippers up out of the water. These appendages have little or no fur and therefore lose heat very rapidly. However these appendages are very strong and well articulated for use in hunting, eating and swimming.
The sea otter employs one more method of keeping warm in the cold ocean temperatures. The animal's body produces a lot of body heat. As the animal is producing a lot of body heat through a high metabolism means that the animal must eat a lot of food. In the case of the sea otter it eats approximately a quarter of their body weight in food every day.
The diet of a sea otter varies between over 50 different types of invertebrates. These include abalone, red octopus, sea urchins and crabs. However even with such a large menu to choose from, it is surprising to know that individual sea otters have been observed to prefer certain foods. Most sea otters only tend to eat one, two, or three different types of invertebrates. These preferences that sea otters have in their diet seem to be learned from their mothers and kept as adults. This for sea otters living in the same place for some time, the specialization of certain foods may reduce competition among neighbors.
Sea otters forage for their food close to the shore, diving among kelp forests along rocky reefs and over muddy bottoms. Using their paws and powerful forelegs, otters can pick urchins and crabs off the seafloor or pry abalone and rock scallops off rocks. Under each foreleg the sea otter has a pouch. This pouch can be used for the storage of food that the sea otter has caught until he / she comes to the surface and eat. Sea otters eat by floating on their backs and using their bellies as a table to rest the food on.
One of the most unique things about the sea otter is the fact that the sea otter uses tools to help it both hunt and eat. The choice tool for the sea otter is a rock. When lying on their back eating, the sea otter will crack snails, mussels and other tough to crack animals. When hunting the sea otter will use the rock to dislodge abalone and other hard to get food. They are but one of a few animals in the world that use tools to aid in eating and hunting. To hunt for their food requires diving.
Sea otters can dive underwater for several minutes at a time while on the hunt for food. The animals have large lungs that allow them to take in lots of oxygen before diving and transfer the oxygen to the blood efficiently. The sea otters blood is also adapted for diving because of the bloods ability to absorb the excess carbon dioxide that accumulates during the dives. Also part of the adaptations that a sea otter has is the ability to see underwater.
The eyes of sea otter can focus underwater and also have the ability to see in dimly lit conditions. When they cannot find their prey by sight, the sea otter's whiskers and paws help then find it by touch. The sea otter's mating season is from mid-April to early September. One male will mate with several different females during this time. A female though, only mates with one male during the brief time that she is fertile. The pair form a bond for several days, cleaning and grooming each other.
After the female conceives they will separate. Mating is said to take place at sea resulting in one young sea otter been born four to six months later on floating kelp rocks and on rocks near the sea. Males play no part in caring for the young. The pupping season is problematic in that there seems to be a large part of the year that newborn and young have been seen. Newly born sea otters have been observed in early March in the Aleutian Islands in Alaska. In California very young pups have been observed in late August.
These pups that are born are completely dependent on its mother. Without her the pup will die. Each mother has only one pup at a time. This one pup will be dependent on its for six months on average.
During these six months the mother will care for her pup at all times only leaving her pup to dive for food while her pup waits on the surface. The mother feeds her pup a rich milk, grooms its coat and carries the pup on her belly to protect the pup from harm. Also during these six months the mother teaches her pup the skills that will be necessary for survival. At the age of one month a pup starts to swim, belly down. At two months the pup as learned how to swim on its back and starts to follow its mother on dives.
Also during the six months that the pup will live with his / her mother they pick up their taste in foods and learn to use tools in hunting and eating. At six months of age the pups have the necessary skills to live by themselves but often continue to try to nurse, beg for food or get a ride on her belly. Mothers are very tolerant of their pups up until the mother weans her pups. Not much is known about the weaning process but it has been noticed that some mothers and pups leave their usual territory at weaning time. Also a male that wants to mate with the female mother as also been noticed to cause the separation.
The social life of the sea otter has been observed by researchers, but we still do not know much about the social bonds or how the animals communicate. However with the long term study of tagged animals more is been understood about these creatures. Male sea otters are known to travel more frequently then and farther then the females. Also the area in which males and females is known to be different. Californian sea otters show this well.
The males live in the northern and southern ends of the population range and the females and pup live in the center of these two groups. Females live in a home area of two to twelve miles, though it has been known for a female to travel farther. Certain males guard smaller territories where females live. In this case the older, territorial males gain access to the resident females.
In day-to-day life, sea otters socialize in groups called rafts. Rafts consist of two or more resting otters. These resting otters will wrap themselves in kelp to both help keep warm while resting and also to aid in hiding themselves from larger predatory animals. Males will raft together in larger groups and females will raft in a combination of females and pups with the occasional territorial male. Today sea otters can be found in waters of the Californian coast and in the Aleutian Islands of Alaska. However sea otters where once plentiful along the coast of northern Japan to the Alaskan Peninsula and down the coast to Baja California up until the 1700 s.
Historians have estimated that there was once up to 300, 000 animals with California having approximately 16, 000 to 20, 000 animals alone. What caused the initial decline in the population of the sea otters was the mass hunting that occurred in the 1700 s for the animal's pelts. This was lead by the Russians who knew that the pelts were worth a lot of money in Russia, Europe, Japan and China. By the late 1700 s the population that once existed in Alaska was nearly exterminated. It was at this point that the Russians moved down the coast to California and joined the British and Americans in the fur trade of the sea otter. At the peak of the hunting of the sea otter, it is estimated that between 500 and 600 sea otters were taken every week from the San Francisco Bay alone.
By the time that the International Fur Seal Treaty was enacted in 1911 establishing protection of sea otters, it was estimated that only 1, 000 to 2, 000 were left throughout that entire range. The population in California is estimated at 2, 300 animals at the end of 1995. Today sea otters are still on the endangered list.
Free research essays on topics related to: females, pup, fur, six months, hours a day
Research essay sample on Hours A Day Six Months
