National Geographic Kids USA - November 2017

ople would

e lucky to

last 20 minutes

in an otter’s

home before

ypothermia—

drop in body

mperature—

ts in and their

bodies shut down.

That’s because a

person loses body

heat 25 times

faster in the water

han in the air.

ther marine mam-

ls, such as whales

walruses, have

er—a thick layer

to keep them

a otters don’t.

, if ever, climb

ter. So how do

COAT

rious fur coat.

You have about 100,000 hairs on your

entire head. An otter has about 800 million

hairs on its body. The fur is the otter’s

shield from the sea. Only the outer layer—

the tips of the hairs—gets wet. The thick

coat and natural oils keep the skin and

underfur dry. Air trapped between the

fur and skin keeps an otter insulated

from the icy water.

If the fur gets dirty or damaged, and

its skin gets wet, an otter can quickly die

of hypothermia. Because its fur is the

only thing protecting a sea otter from

the heat-stealing ocean water, the marine

mammal spends nearly half of its day

cleaning, combing, and fluffing its coat.

FEEDING FRENZY

To stay warm an otter also relies on a

super-revved metabolism. This internal

furnace is always set on extra-hot. To fuel

that furnace, and because an otter doesn’t

store fat to turn into energy, it must eat

massive amounts of food every day. Their

prey includes sea urchins, crabs, octo-

puses, and fish as well as shellfish such as

abalones, mussels, and clams.

“Otters are ravenous eaters,” marine

biologist Lori Timm says. “To survive, an

average adult sea otter needs to eat 6,750

calories a day. That’s three times more

calories than a kid needs!”

A daily menu might be 7 abalone, 37

cancer crabs, 50 sea urchins, or 157 kelp

crabs—or some similar combination of

prey. That’s equal in calories to 28 hot dogs

with buns, 42 scoops of chocolate ice

cream, 127 apples, or almost 2,000

little candies.

An otter

eats 20 to 30

percent of its

body weight

a day—that’s 15

to 20 pounds

of food.

An otter has

as many as

one million

hairs in one

square inch

of skin.

DIVING FOR
DINNER

RELAXING BETWEEN MEALS

Only a female

and her pups will

hunt in groups or

share food.