Who doesn’t love watching otters holding hands, playing, and using each other’s tummies as rafts? Sea otters, which live in northern coastal areas of the Pacific Ocean, are iconically adorable animals, their charm makes them great mascots for environmental protection efforts, and their importance to their local ecosystems cannot be understated.
Sadly, sea otters are threatened by pollution, poaching, and commercial fishing, which sometimes leads to baby otters washing up to shore unattended. But thanks to the efforts of aquariums where people are able to care for them around the clock and teach these cute otters life skills, even baby animals that are orphans have a chance of making it to adulthood.
And we get lots of adorable baby otter pics along the way. Scroll down, have a look, and upvote the cutest photos!
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Baby sea otters’ fluff isn’t just adorable, it’s practical: they can’t sink because their incredibly dense hair traps air, making them float. But they still have to be taught to swim and groom themselves, which is more difficult for humans to encourage them to do without an adult otter to show them.
Another reason why raising orphaned otters isn't easy is because they get sick easily due to not receiving antibodies from their mother’s milk, a condition you may be familiar with if you’ve ever had to bottle-feed abandoned kittens or puppies.
Many orphaned otters who are raised through this difficult period by humans are determined by wildlife experts to be non-releasable, meaning they become too trusting of humans to be safe in the wild, and end up having to live in captivity permanently.
One aquarium in California has figured out how to increase the number of baby otters that can be successfully returned to the wild: by letting otters raise them, of course. Now, the first line of action upon taking in an orphaned otter is to give it to an adult female otter. Otters are very social and many of them don’t think twice about raising a pup that’s handed to them.
According to the International Otter Survival Fund, out of the 13 species of otters around the world, the only ones that are not threatened or endangered are North American River Otters, which live just about everywhere in the United States and Canada except for the Rocky Mountains and dry areas.
Some river otters made it into this list too—they're a little sleeker than fluffy baby sea otters, but just as cute.
Awwwwww!!!! This one comes with its' own "Caution Cone For Cuteness"! XD
That's not even pretending to be preparing the otter for a life back in the wild.
Note: this post originally had 78 images. It’s been shortened to the top 30 images based on user votes.
A lot of these pics don't look like they're taken in an aquarium/rehab centre that aims to release the baby otters back into the wild. If you are not an aquarium/rehab centre you have no business having an otter pup. One of the reasons they are becoming rare in the wild is their inherent cuteness and people thinking it's clever to have them as pets. It's not. Otter pups belong with their mothers/adoptive mothers and in the wild.
100% true. There are times when they can't be released back into the wild but otters should not be kept as pets. Let wild animals be wild wherever possible.
Monterey Bay Aquarium, in California, has a great program for rehabilitation and release of orphaned otters.
I fully agree. They're wild animals and should be treated as such (even through people, including me, find them cute)
I agree, I find the US laws around exotic animals etc in captivity to be quite lax, yes they may need a license in some states but obviously it doesn’t take much to get one. They can own animals from bears, monkeys, otters, tigers, lemurs etc. Apparently there are more exotic animals in homes than in zoos in the US. In Australia you will rarely (if ever) encounter someone that owns an exotic animal as it is illegal and if someone was to keep something like a possum they have to obtain a special license and it is very strict. We used to have a pet snake and when we purchased it the seller had to keep records by law of type of snake, age, date being purchased, who purchased it etc and if we were ever to sell the snake we would have had to purchase a special license through the departments for environment and water. I like that our laws are a lot more rigid in regards to owning non domestic/exotic animals.
This having monkeys, peacocks, tigers, exotic birds and lizards, sugar gliders, chinchillas..that all needs to stop. Their place is in the wild. Not in a cage or human home. The only time an animal should be kept in a zoo or aquarium is if it's in fear of going extinct through human abuse/poaching. Then the zoos and aquariums can act as breeding programs to save the population. And we also need to put laws in place to stop the physical alteration of domesticated animals for looks (ear cropping, tail docking, etc.)
Some states are better than others in the US, but it's improving. Unfortunately, there will always be awful people supplying rare and exotic animals to the illegal pet trade.
There are times when the workers of those centers have to take the pups home because they need 24/7 care, until they are grown enough to be released to wild or with the adult otters in the aquarium. Some pics could be that scenario, we dont know, so best not to always assume the worst based off pics online. Maybe the mother died and its pups were rescued, but animals bred and raised in captivity are unlikely able to go to the wild. If someone does breed them or have them, would you rather they just get sent out to die now knowing how to live in the wild? Or have someone with the means and smarts to care for them proper to at least give them a good life? Sadly, not all exotic pet breeders are good illed humans. Thanks to humans destroying food an habitat, there are some animals that if not for breeding in captivity would be completely extinct now.
Some states are better than others in the US, but it's improving. Unfortunately, there will always be awful people supplying rare and exotic animals to the illegal pet trade.
Oops... I meant to say this to Foxxy.
I didn't know baby otter that cute, just cause they are cute don't mean they should living in our space, not for pet!!! Watch this video: https://youtu.be/-4astmLq6Ss?t=4
This comes as no surprise. Everyone "otter" know how cute these critters are.
A lot of these pics don't look like they're taken in an aquarium/rehab centre that aims to release the baby otters back into the wild. If you are not an aquarium/rehab centre you have no business having an otter pup. One of the reasons they are becoming rare in the wild is their inherent cuteness and people thinking it's clever to have them as pets. It's not. Otter pups belong with their mothers/adoptive mothers and in the wild.
100% true. There are times when they can't be released back into the wild but otters should not be kept as pets. Let wild animals be wild wherever possible.
Monterey Bay Aquarium, in California, has a great program for rehabilitation and release of orphaned otters.
I fully agree. They're wild animals and should be treated as such (even through people, including me, find them cute)
I agree, I find the US laws around exotic animals etc in captivity to be quite lax, yes they may need a license in some states but obviously it doesn’t take much to get one. They can own animals from bears, monkeys, otters, tigers, lemurs etc. Apparently there are more exotic animals in homes than in zoos in the US. In Australia you will rarely (if ever) encounter someone that owns an exotic animal as it is illegal and if someone was to keep something like a possum they have to obtain a special license and it is very strict. We used to have a pet snake and when we purchased it the seller had to keep records by law of type of snake, age, date being purchased, who purchased it etc and if we were ever to sell the snake we would have had to purchase a special license through the departments for environment and water. I like that our laws are a lot more rigid in regards to owning non domestic/exotic animals.
This having monkeys, peacocks, tigers, exotic birds and lizards, sugar gliders, chinchillas..that all needs to stop. Their place is in the wild. Not in a cage or human home. The only time an animal should be kept in a zoo or aquarium is if it's in fear of going extinct through human abuse/poaching. Then the zoos and aquariums can act as breeding programs to save the population. And we also need to put laws in place to stop the physical alteration of domesticated animals for looks (ear cropping, tail docking, etc.)
Some states are better than others in the US, but it's improving. Unfortunately, there will always be awful people supplying rare and exotic animals to the illegal pet trade.
There are times when the workers of those centers have to take the pups home because they need 24/7 care, until they are grown enough to be released to wild or with the adult otters in the aquarium. Some pics could be that scenario, we dont know, so best not to always assume the worst based off pics online. Maybe the mother died and its pups were rescued, but animals bred and raised in captivity are unlikely able to go to the wild. If someone does breed them or have them, would you rather they just get sent out to die now knowing how to live in the wild? Or have someone with the means and smarts to care for them proper to at least give them a good life? Sadly, not all exotic pet breeders are good illed humans. Thanks to humans destroying food an habitat, there are some animals that if not for breeding in captivity would be completely extinct now.
Some states are better than others in the US, but it's improving. Unfortunately, there will always be awful people supplying rare and exotic animals to the illegal pet trade.
Oops... I meant to say this to Foxxy.
I didn't know baby otter that cute, just cause they are cute don't mean they should living in our space, not for pet!!! Watch this video: https://youtu.be/-4astmLq6Ss?t=4
This comes as no surprise. Everyone "otter" know how cute these critters are.