The South Pacific Sea Otter
Some Fun Facts
~ Sea Otter's teeth are much tougher than humans, they have an extra layer of enamel filled with protein to prevent their teeth from cracking when eating hardshell organisms like clams and sea urchins.
~ They have the densest fur out of the animal kingdom with about a million hairs per square inch of their body.
~ Sea Otters can walk on land but live exclusively in the ocean even when they are sleeping and giving birth to their young.
~ One of the only animals that use 'tools' (rocks on the seashore to bust open clamshells)
~ On rare occasions otters give birth to twins pups, about 2 percent of the time but only one survives.
Benefits to the Environment
By definition, means that the species have a disproportionate effect among the other species in the ecosystem. They control the functionality of ecosystems and without keystone species they collapse.