Days 2 & 3, October 19-20, 2007

For 2 days we have focused our attention on the sea otters in the Elkhorn Slough. First we spent a day observing and collecting data on the foraging of the otters. We saw mostly young male otters...we knew they were young because they didn’t have the white “grizzling” on their faces...we knew they were males...well, we could see that body part as they layed on their backs to eat. Did you know that otters have to consume over 25% of their body weight everyday?


Check out the picture of the otter prey and see if you can identify all of the prey itens. Try to be specific as to which species of clams they are.








Our second day with the otters was spent in the harbor, near the slough. We were collecting data on the otter behaviors and the impact of boat traffic on them. We watched them for 24 hours. We had a couple of sad situations: 2 gulls walked by with broken wings and one large, older male otter hauled up on land. This is normal, however, as we watched we could see he was sick and dying. I’ve posted pictures.