researchers followed 196 tagged sea otters over several years. With the help of dedicated volunteer “otter spotters,” the researchers tracked the feeding habits, tool use and overall health of ...

"Sea otters vary in how often they use tools," said Chris Law, a postdoctoral researcher and an Early Career Provost Fellow at UT Austin who led the study while a graduate student at UC Santa Cruz.

Sea otters are critical players in marine ecosystems and are a keystone species, meaning they have a profound effect on their ...

Sea otters are on the edge of extinction ... One Step Closer – Legislation to let parents use public funds for private education heads to the Governor. Josh Hinkle speaks one-on-one with ...

Every day California sea otters spend 10 to 12 hours hunting and ... What is surprising (to those who think of tool use as a primate skill, or at least a terrestrial one) is that otters use ...

A devastating sea star plague triggered an unexpected ecological shift, creating a mussel boom that sea otters turned into a buffet.

DESCRIPTION: Sea otters use their rear flippers to move and their flat, muscular tails to steer. They have an exceptional sense of smell, hearing, and eyesight above water and below. Lacking blubber, ...

In the wake of the sea star die-off, mussels became a major prey surplus for sea otters, revealing a surprising link between the adjacent rocky intertidal and kelp forest ecosystems. The new ...