Wild Sea Otter Gives Birth Behind the Monterey Bay Aqaurium

Have you heard about this? Yesterday, I was getting Periscope notifications that the Monterey Bay Aquarium had live footage of a wild sea otter giving birth. So, I had to watch, and follow up today. Here’s the story! The Monterey Bay area had really stormy weather this weekend and they noticed a wild sea otter had made her way into their protected tide pool area for shelter. She was exhibiting some behaviors that made the aquarium staff think she was in labor, they got an expert to observe her and he agreed she looked really bloated and like she was going to give birth within an hour. Patrick from the aquarium scoped about it for almost 45 minutes and they also took some high quality video. She did end up successfully giving birth to a healthy single pup. It was also interesting on Periscope because viewers asked questions and Patrick was able to answer. A couple of the questions  and  answers were:

Q: Why is she spinning around in the water? (this is not shown on the Youtube videos below but could be seen on the scope) 

A: She was doing a lot of grooming behavior. Before they give birth, sea otters groom like crazy.

Q: Is  this a common occurrence at the aquarium – that wild sea otters come in and give birth in their sheltered area?

A: No. It almost never happens – they did have another one happen about a year ago though.

Q: Do sea otters have twins? 

A: Yes, but usually singletons. If a sea otter, like many wild animals, has twins, she can only care for and keep one alive, so she abandons the weaker pup.  Occasionally, the aquarium will rescue an abandoned sea otter pup.

This one is closer up and be warned, the miracle of life is a little graphic in this one.