The Pet Tree House - Where Pets Are Family Too : Monterey Bay Aquarium The Pet Tree House - Where Pets Are Family Too : Monterey Bay Aquarium
Showing posts with label Monterey Bay Aquarium. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Monterey Bay Aquarium. Show all posts

Monday, March 7, 2016

Rare Video at Monterey Bay Aquarium: A Pregnant Wild Sea Otter Giving Birth on a Rock in the Waters Surrounding the Facility


Visitors to Monterey Bay Aquarium in central California were treated to a rare and unexpected sight over the weekend: a pregnant wild sea otter giving birth on a rock in the waters surrounding the facility.

The sea otter took shelter in the aquarium’s Great Tide Pool on Saturday. Video showed her writhing atop a rock as she labored.

“It’s not every day you get to watch a sea otter pup come into the world!” the aquarium wrote on a Facebook post. “Our sea otter researchers have been watching wild otters for years and have never seen a birth close up like this. We’re amazed and awed to have had a chance to witness this Monterey Bay conservation success story first hand in our own backyard.”

In video of the birth, the mama sea otter could be seen grooming the baby immediately after it was born. Such meticulous grooming, the aquarium explained, will keep the baby warm and buoyant.

Get a closer look at the sea otter birth in the YouTube video below. (As the aquarium warned, “Spoiler alert: the miracle of life is graphic!”)




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Tuesday, December 22, 2015

A Wild Sea Otter Swam into Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Great Tidepool and Gave Birth to a Healthy Pup


Monterey, CA - A wild sea otter that swam into Monterey BayAquarium’s Great Tidepool gave birth Saturday to a healthy otter pup, according to aquarium staff.

The mother and baby are doing well and were caught on the aquarium’s Otter Cam cuddling and grooming. The pup weighs just a couple pounds, staff said.

Wild sea animals are able to gain entry to the Great Tidepool because it serves as an outflow for the aquarium's sea water. Staff often use the pool during underwater explorer classes.

The otter and its pup will not be tagged or kept at the aquarium because they are wild. The furry pair are free to swim back into the ocean from the tidepool whenever they please.

This is not the first time a pregnant sea otter has swum into the aquarium to give birth. In fact, it happened just two years ago, and schools of fish and other sea critters have been known to come with the tide, staff said.

Trainers have theorized that pregnant sea otters may seek refuge at the pool because it is quieter and less populated than its vast oceanic counterpart.

The sea otters that live in the aquarium are all rescues that are unable to survive in the wild, according to the aquarium website.






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