Sea otters are the smallest marine mammals, but they have some incredible adaptations to thrive in the ocean. Unlike seals and whales, they don’t have a thick layer of blubber to keep them warm.

Sea otters have a thick layer of fur that is the densest in the entire animal kingdom. - Their fur is so dense that in some areas of their body, in a square inch about this big, they have up to a ...

The bottoms of boats and docks can accumulate lots of dirt, but semiaquatic animals like otters avoid having ‘fouled’ fur. Their secret could one day help keep underwater infrastructure clean.

The sea otter’s grooming regimen will be familiar to anyone with a cat. Like cats, sea otters spend considerable time licking and biting their fur to keep it clean and conditioned.

Utterly charming, otters are web-footed animals that inhabit rivers and seas around North America, Asia, Europe, Africa, and ...

Sea otter moms in captivity take in orphaned pups—often left parentless thanks to great white sharks, which bite but don’t actually eat otters, since sharks prefer blubber to fur.

Sea otters aren’t just cute -- they’re a vivid example of life on the edge. Unlike whales and other ocean mammals, sea otters have no blubber. Yet they're still able to keep warm in the frigid Pacific ...

By 1911, when a treaty curtailed the international seal and sea otter fur trade, a few sparse clusters were all that remained of the sea otter population that had once ringed the Pacific—between ...

“That’s why sea otters have up to 1 million hairs per square inch. Humans only have about 100,000 hairs on our entire head.” Because it’s so thick, sea otter fur is warm and waterproof.

About 10% of a sea otter’s daily activity involves maintaining the insulating layer of air trapped in their fur. Dense fur is not enough, by itself, to keep sea otters warm.

but they were hunted to near extinction due to the fur trade this week the us fish and wildlife service kept the southern sea otter on the endangered species list. <dan: clip 9166-0 0:04:24:28 ...

Q. You once said diamondback terrapins were your favorite turtle. What is your favorite mammal? A. Tough question, because all puppies and kittens, indeed most baby mammals, are engaging. But sea ...