Sea otters are the smallest air-breathing mammals living in the ocean. Since their hind legs have evolved into webbed shapes that are more suitable for swimming, they rarely go to the ground. Basically, sea otters spend their entire lives Spent at sea.

Thanks to their hind legs that are good at swimming, their two front paws are basically idle when swimming. In this way, they always have to find something to do for their front paws.

So sea otters will use their paws to help themselves or others Similar combs the thick fur. Unlike most other marine mammals (such as sea lions, manatees, seals), sea otters do not have too much fat. In order to cope with the cold waters of the North Pacific, they can only find another way, that is, to grow hundreds of millions of hairs. How many? It is estimated that sea otters have up to 150,000 hairs per square centimeter of body surface. You must know that there are only 100,000 to 120,000 hairs on the top of the human head (people engaged in certain occupations may have less hair)... So Sea otters also have one of the densest fur of any animal. These hairs are not only used to keep warm, but are also very waterproof, preventing cold water from contacting the skin and preventing heat loss. Although there are many benefits, there are also many problems caused by thick hair. For example, due to staying in the water for a long time, the hair of sea otters will become compacted, and they do not molt in specific seasons, but are constantly renewing, because the waterproof ability of their surface hair largely depends on the neatness of the hair. , so these loose hairs or tangled hairs need to be cleaned up in time, and they just use their free little paws to comb. For sea otters living in the wild, they also have a "confused behavior", that is, they must sleep hand in hand. However, they are still very principled. They usually sleep hand in hand with their family or partners, and will not just find any sea otter outside. Holding hands. And the reason why they do this is very simple: because of "love". Because sea otters float when sleeping, if they are a couple of sea otters, holding hands can prevent them from drifting apart at sea while sleeping. However, there is another very important reason for this: female sea otters are afraid Losing male sea otters. In the sea otter population, males generally have multiple female partners, so during the mating season, the competition for male sea otters becomes extremely fierce. In order to allow the male sea otters to mate conscientiously, the female sea otters will cling to them even when they sleep. The other person's claws, maybe this is "love". As in human society, maternal love becomes more prominent when women have children, and sea otters are no exception. After the sea otter babies are born, because they have not yet grown thick enough fur and cannot dive into the water, the sea otter mother will keep the baby sea otter with her. At this time, the baby sea otter cannot hold hands because its front paws are too small, so the sea otter mother will He would put baby sea otters on his body and float with them. When mother sea otters have to go hunting, they wrap their babies in kelp to prevent them from drifting away in the current. But the most interesting thing sea otters do with their claws is when they're eating. In nature, only a handful of mammals can use tools, and sea otters use rocks as tools. This is also caused by the food they catch! Sea otters will dive to the bottom of the sea when looking for food, but they only stay underwater for about 3 to 5 minutes. Therefore, sea otters are very smart when looking for food. They will use their front paws to turn over the rocks on the bottom of the sea to find the food hidden underneath. Shellfish, or clams dug out of the seabed with their front paws, and sea urchins, which are easier to catch, are also their favorites. But these foods all have one characteristic: they are not easy to eat, and they either have shells or thorns. So the sea otter will find a stone and put it on its belly, then grab the prey with its front paws and quickly smash it against the stone, so that it can enjoy the delicious food inside. In order to avoid missing a handy tool and delaying their meal, they also used the loose skin under their forelimbs to forcefully create a tool bag, which can contain some items. But will it really not fall out...01 When it comes to eating between sea otters and humans, humans never treat themselves badly. Shellfish, clams, sea urchins and other seafood in the sea are all human food sources, but what a coincidence Coincidentally, these foods are also the preferred prey of sea otters, so in some areas, some people blame sea otters for the sharp decline in shellfish and sea urchin production. The sea otters felt bitter, thinking that our numbers were not very large...

You must know that starting from 1741, the number of sea otters began to decrease significantly. The reason was because of their thick fur. At that time, This is one of the best furs, and sea otters were hunted for it. By the beginning of the 19th century, there were less than 2,000 sea otters left in the world.

In 1896, Unalaska trappers The boat is waiting to set off, but they are not extinct now, because an international ban on hunting sea otters has been issued, which has prompted the number of sea otters to rebound, which is about two-thirds of its historical peak (about a hundred thousand). But their current situation is still not optimistic. The IUCN still lists sea otters as an endangered species. For no other reason than sea otters are still a "money-making machine" for poachers. Oil pollution and fishery conflicts with humans also affect their survival. Quite tough. The biggest threat to sea otters is oil spills (oil leaks into the sea, ground or beaches due to operational errors), because they rely on their fur to keep warm. When oil soaks into their fur, the fur loses its ability to keep warm. Sea otters Will die from hypothermia. The 1989 oil spill in Prince William Sound killed thousands of sea otters. They were originally a group of curious, innocent bystanders. When the waves of "black water" hit, they did not escape until these sea otters found themselves at a disadvantage in the fight with the oil, and finally died in horror. ..