Jade, a non-releasable female southern sea otter, is well on her way to potentially becoming a surrogate mom! Here at Shedd, she’s practicing critical skills that will help the orphaned pups she’ll raise survive in the wild. We’ll tell you more about each skill and how her caretakers are encouraging those behaviors!
Manager of Sea Lions and Otters Andrea Oake explains …
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Using Tools
Q: Why is using tools so important for otters?
A: Sea otters are the only marine mammals known to use stone tools! Tool use allows otters to more effectively access their prey items, resulting in a higher consumption rate. This can be extremely important in times when food supplies are limited, as utilizing tools is the only way otters are able eat certain food items. Additionally, utilizing tools to crack open prey items with tough exteriors protects their teeth from damage. Teeth are essential for otter survival because they must chew their food as they’re eating.
Q: What do they use tools for?
A: Tools are primarily used to break open hard-shelled food items such as clams or crabs. Otters dive to find an appropriate rock that they bring to the surface, along with their prey items. While floating on their backs and utilizing their stomachs as a sort of “table,” otters hold the rock on their stomachs and use their paws to grasp and repeatedly hit the prey items against the rock to crack it open and access the nutrient-dense meat inside. Otters have also been seen utilizing other hard shells in place of a rock or hitting their food items against boat hulls.
Q: How will this skill help Jade as a surrogate mom?
A: As a surrogate mom, Jade willexpend significantly more energy than she would when not caring for a pup. Being able to consume larger, difficult-to-access prey items will supply her body with the energy and nutrients it needs. Interestingly, studies have found that female otters use tools more often than males. In addition to observing females utilizing tools at higher rates, researchers found that females had less tooth wear and damage than males. It’s hypothesized that increased tool use allows females, who have smaller bodies and weaker bite strength than males, to ingest sufficient calories to support pregnancy and pup rearing.
Q: How do pups learn to use tools?
A: There are a few ways in which pups learn to use tools. First, there appears to be some level of instinct, as young pups frequently pound their paws against their chest. This is further supported by the observation that even orphaned pups have been seen doing this behavior! Second, pups are naturally very curious and exploratory, manipulating objects like rocks that may be a sort of “trial and error” learning method. Third, pups watch and imitate their mothers using tools.
Q: How do you encourage this skill at Shedd?
A: We regularly provide the raft of sea otters at Shedd with whole diet items that require problem-solving to open. We’ll often see the otters hit these items against rockwork in their habitat or enrichment items that have been provided. Staff have even developed enrichment items that mimic natural hunting behavior, such as 3D-printed clam shells and sea urchins.
Q: Is Jade good at using tools?
A: Jade is frequently observed using tools successfully! She’s able to open and eat whole food items like clams and mussels. When given hard, durable feeder devices, she will repeatedly hit it against objects in her environment to shake loose the food and treats inside.
Diving and Foraging
Q: Why are diving and foraging so important for otters?
A: Sea otters have an incredibly high metabolic rate as an adaptation to keep them warm in cold ocean waters. Heat is released as a byproduct of digestion, thereby warming the body. To fuel their fast metabolisms, otters must consume a lot of food. On average, otters will eatroughly 25% of their body weight per day! Since all their prey is found below the surface, otters must dive and forage underwater to feed. While dives are typically shallow, they have been observed diving to depths over 300 feet. The average depth and length of dives vary between males and females, as well as between northern and southern sea otters, with males regularly diving deeper than females and northerns diving deeper than southerns.
Q: How will these skills help Jade as a surrogate mom?
A: There are two main reasons why diving and foraging are essential surrogacy skills for Jade. First, she will need to forage more frequently in order to procure enough food for both herself and her surrogate pup. This is one reason why females dive for shorter periods of time and at shallower depths than males; the shorter dives are more efficient and allow the mother to more quickly return to their vulnerable pup floating at the surface. Second, Jade will eventually need to teach her surrogate pup how to dive and find their own food!
Q: How do pups learn how to dive and forage?
A: At around 8-10 weeks old, pups shed their extra-dense pup fur that makes them incredibly buoyant. When their adult fur grows in, pups are taught to dive by their mothers.
Q: How do you encourage these skills at Shedd?
A: The raft of otters at Shedd are regularly provided with enrichment devices that sink to the bottom of their habitats. These devices can be filled with ice or food items that the otters seem to enjoy, encouraging their exploration and foraging. Similarly, staff sometimes deliver food through a method often referred to as scatter or broadcast feeding. During this type of feed, the prepared diet items begin to sink, creating an opportunity for the otters to dive and “capture” their prey.
Q: Is Jade good at diving and foraging? What does successful diving and foraging look like?
A: Diving and foraging are just two of several behaviors that staff watch for during regular animal observations. We’re looking closely at how often and long the otters dive, as well as how readily they explore their entire habitat space. It’s been very rewarding to see Jade’s comfort and experience with diving grow since her arrival at Shedd. It is now very common to observe her diving to the bottom of the habitat, diving several times in a row and diving for a couple of minutes at a time!
Socializing
Q: Why is socializing so important for otters?
A: Sea otters are a naturally social species, found in groups called "rafts" that can range from just a few individuals to more than 1,000 otters. This social congregation provides many benefits including protection from predators and warmth. It also helps prevent individuals from drifting away in strong ocean currents when resting. It is not uncommon to see solo males in the wild, depending on the time of year, as they are highly territorial during breeding season.
Q: What does socializing look like? How do otters interact with one another?
A: It is most common to observe groups of females with offspring and groups of males. You may see behaviors such as play, grooming or resting in social groups. Otters will often wrap themselves in kelp to further prevent drifting, which is what resembles a "raft." Otters use vocalizations, tactile (touch), body language and smell to communicate with one another. For instance, pups will emit high-pitched vocalizations to call for their mothers. Mothers carry pups on their chest at the surface and typically only leave them to forage for food.
Q: How will this skill help Jade as a surrogate mom?
A: Social behavior is an essential survival skill for wild otters. Interacting with the other otters at Shedd will allow Jade to practice these socialization skills that she can then teach to future surrogate pups. Pups learn socialization behaviors from their mothers.
Q: How do you encourage this skill at Shedd?
A: We provide ample time for the otters to interact with each other outside of training sessions. We give enrichment that stimulates natural behaviors such as "kelp" for resting, foraging devices and objects of varying size for the otters to hold and carry around on their chest. Some of our enrichment devices are even targeted to specifically stimulate cooperative behavior. For example, the otters may need to work together to manipulate an object and gain access to food items. During training sessions, we also encourage cooperative behavior and positively reinforce appropriate social behavior with things the otters seem to enjoy.
Q: Is Jade social? What otters in the raft at Shedd has she met and what are those interactions typically like?
A: Yes, Jade is very social! She has now met all four of the other otters at Shedd: Luna, Watson, Cooper and Seldovia. It's been really fun to watch her build relationships with each of the other otters, because she acts a little differently with all of them. She and Luna can often be seen grooming one another or taking naps in the kelp, whereas she and Seldovia tend to exhibit more play behavior.
Q: What are you hoping to see in positive social interactions?
A: We love to see any of the behaviors discussed above. Looking more high-level, we like to see each individual seek out interactions with others, and that those interactions are positively reciprocated. It's also important that the otters are able to disengage from any social interaction when they choose. For instance, if one otter is done playing and chooses to stop playing with another, the other otter should allow them to do so; they should listen to each other's social cues and respond accordingly.
Grooming
Q: Why is grooming so important for otters?
A: Sea otters have the densest fur coat on Earth, with roughly 1 million hairs per square inch. Since they lack the thick blubber layer that is characteristic in other marine mammal species, sea otters rely on their coat and metabolism to keep them warm in cold ocean waters. To maintain this insulation barrier, sea otters must meticulously groom their coats: spreading apart the hairs, evenly dispersing their natural oils and fluffing it with air bubbles. It is common for sea otters to spend several hours grooming their coats every day.
Q: How will this skill help Jade as a surrogate mom?
A: Grooming is an essential survival skill for sea otters, but it's not something they instinctually know how to do. In their first few months of life, sea otter pups are taught to groom by their mothers. As a future surrogate mom, this is one of the most important skills Jade will need to teach the pups before they could be released back into the wild.
Q: How do you encourage this skill at Shedd?
A: We offer a variety of enrichment devices at Shedd that stimulate natural behavior, like grooming. For example, we place compressed felt "kelp" in the otters' habitats that they seem to enjoy grooming in. You will often see them nestled amongst the kelp strips grooming and rubbing their coats into the material. The otters also groom frequently in piles of ice that animal care staff provide.
Q: Is Jade good at grooming herself? How often does she groom?
A: Jade is an excellent groomer! We regularly see her exhibit grooming behavior throughout each day. Shedd animal care staff routinely assess the health and wellbeing of all the animals in our care, and assessing the coat condition of each otter is an important component that ensures the animal is appropriately maintaining their thermoregulatory barrier.
As she has gotten to know the rest of the otter raft at Shedd, Jade has often been observed grooming and being groomed by the other otters. This is a positive, natural social behavior observed in sea otters that we are very encouraged to see!