In the fall of 2003, concerned kayakers removed Mari from Alaskan waters when they mistakenly thought she had been abandoned. Though well-meaning, their action breached the Marine Mammal Protection Act and, even worse, permanently separated her from her mother, who was probably hunting for food. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service asked Shedd to adopt her, based on our success in raising several sea otters orphaned by the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill.

Two-month-old Mari required constant care when she arrived, including six daily bottles and frequent grooming to keep her thick fur fluffed with insulating air bubbles. Within two months, she became more self-sufficient in her eating, swimming and grooming skills. And within a year, she was fully integrated with the four adults in the “big pool,” a 40,000-gallon habitat in Shedd’s Oceanarium. Though shy at first, she quickly took the 16-foot plunge and corkscrewed back up, delighting children and adults alike with her playful antics and unquestionable cuteness.

Similarly, boaters retrieved Kiana, also 2 months old, from an Alaska beach in the spring of 2005-this time legally, following several hours of observation that determined her mother indeed was not returning. Once at Shedd, specialists bottle-fed her a warm concoction of ground clam, squid, cod liver oil, cow’s milk and vitamins every few hours. When she wasn’t napping in her tiny waterbed, she was twirling about in her private pool, then being meticulously towel-dried, combed and blown dry by her caretakers. Until Kiana learned to groom herself, she generated 80 to 100 towels every day! Like Mari, Kiana will gradually join the adults as her life skills mature.

Eventually both females will be ready to breed, critical to both the aquarium’s breeding efforts and to sustaining our older otter population. For both Mari and Kiana, what could have been a sad fate in the wild has turned into a joyful story for both Shedd and the animals.