The sea otter is a marine mammal native to the coasts of the northern and eastern North Pacific Ocean. Adult sea otters typically weigh between 14 and 45 kg, making them the heaviest members of the weasel family. The species was formerly known as the “sea otters’ fur-bearer” or the ‘sea beavers’ and was sometimes called the ’sea otster’ It has been classified as an endangered species by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
About Sea otter in brief
The sea otter is a marine mammal native to the coasts of the northern and eastern North Pacific Ocean. Adult sea otters typically weigh between 14 and 45 kg, making them the heaviest members of the weasel family. Sea otters, whose numbers were once estimated at 150,000–300,000, were hunted extensively for their fur between 1741 and 1911, and the world population fell to 1,000-2,000 individuals living in a fraction of their historic range. A subsequent international ban on hunting, sea otTER conservation efforts, and reintroduction programs into previously populated areas have contributed to numbers rebounding. The recovery of the sea Otter is considered an important success in marine conservation, although populations in the Aleutian Islands and California have recently declined or have plateaued at depressed levels. The full genome of the northern sea ottered was sequenced in 2017 and may allow for examination of its evolutionary divergence from terrestrial mustelids. The generic name Enhydra lutris, derives from the Ancient Greek enhydra, meaning water, meaning “sea otter” or “beaver”, and the Latin word lutri, which means “to walk on water” The sea otster was formerly referred to as the “sea beaver” and sometimes referred to the Rodentor beaver, which is not closely related to the otter. It is the heaviest member of the family Mustelidae, a diverse group that includes the 13 otter species and terrestrial animals such as weasels, badgers, and minks.
Its primary form of insulation is an exceptionally thick coat of fur, the densest in the animal kingdom. It can walk on land, but is capable of living exclusively in the ocean. It preys mostly on marine invertebrates such as sea urchins, various molluscs and crustaceans, and some species of fish. In most of its range, it is a keystone species, controllingSea urchin populations which would otherwise inflict extensive damage to kelp forest ecosystems. Its diet includes prey species that are also valued by humans as food, leading to conflicts between sea Otters and fisheries. The modern sea ottery evolved initially in northern Hokkaidō and Russia, and then spread east to the Aleutsian Islands, mainland Alaska, and down the North American coast. It was described by Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in his 10th edition of Systema Naturae Natura. It underwent numerous name changes before being accepted in 1922 as EnHydra marina, or Lutra marina. The species was formerly known as the “sea otters’ fur-bearer” or the ‘sea beavers’ and was sometimes called the ’sea otster’. It has been classified as an endangered species by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. It lives its entire life without leaving the water, and is so different from other mustelid species that, as recently as 1982, some scientists believed it was more closelyrelated to the earless seals.
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This page is based on the article Sea otter published in Wikipedia (as of Dec. 01, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
