Sea Otter Floating on Its Back Coloring Page for Kids

Sea Otters and Life in the Kelp

The Thickest Fur in the Animal Kingdom

Unlike seals and whales, sea otters have no blubber to keep warm, so they rely entirely on their fur. Their coat is the densest of any animal, packing as many as a million hairs into a single square inch of skin. Trapped air in the fur forms a warm, waterproof blanket against the chilly Pacific.

Because clean fur keeps them alive, otters spend hours grooming, rubbing, and rolling to work air back into their coats. A dirty or oily coat lets cold water reach the skin, which is why oil spills are so dangerous to them.

Tool Users of the Sea

Sea otters are one of the few animals that use tools. An otter will tuck a favorite rock into a loose pouch of skin under its arm, float on its back, and smash clams, mussels, and sea urchins against the stone until the shells crack open, exactly the clam-cracking pose shown here.

This clever trick lets otters eat hard-shelled prey that many hunters cannot reach. A hungry otter eats about a quarter of its body weight every day to fuel the fast body heat it needs in cold water.

Rafts, Kelp, and Holding Paws

Sea otters live among tall underwater kelp forests along rocky coasts. To keep from drifting out to sea while they nap, otters wrap themselves in strands of kelp like a natural anchor, or link paws with neighbors. A floating group is charmingly called a raft, and some rafts hold hundreds of otters.

Mother otters are devoted parents. A pup rides on its mother's belly as she floats, and she wraps it in kelp to keep it safe while she dives for food. Pups are so fluffy with baby fur that they cannot sink even if they try.

Guardians of the Coast

Sea otters are a keystone species, meaning the whole coast depends on them. By eating sea urchins, otters keep urchin numbers in check, and that protects the kelp forests urchins would otherwise chew down to bare rock. Healthy kelp shelters fish, crabs, and many other creatures.

Once hunted almost to extinction for their prized fur, sea otters are now protected, and small populations have slowly returned to parts of California, Alaska, and Russia. Watching a raft of otters float and crack shells is a favorite sight for anyone lucky enough to visit the northern coast.

Pockets, Pups, and Favorite Rocks

A sea otter has a loose flap of baggy skin under each front leg that works like a built-in pocket. An otter tucks its favorite rock and a snack of shellfish into these pouches, keeping both handy so it can dive, surface, and get straight to cracking without losing its tools to the current.

Otters are also very talkative, squealing, whistling, and grunting to stay in touch across the kelp. A mother and her pup call back and forth so they can find each other quickly, an important trick in a wide, wave-tossed ocean where a small pup could easily drift out of sight.