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!”)
