11/13/2021
I feel like we’re drifting apart…Maybe it’s time we sea otter people.
Sail away, sail away, sail away! Do otters really hold hands? Hand-holding (we’ll, paw-holding) may be one strategy to keep otters from drifting off into the sunset, or most importantly, too far from a food source, but holding hands would probably do little to prevent them from being carried off by a strong current. (Had to ruin that moment of cuteness, didn’t we?) In reality, they would just be carried off together, which would be of little help when they wake up miles from where they started. Then the paw-pointing starts, things start to get vocal, a half-eaten clam is suddenly launched from an underarm otter pocket! (Say that three times fast!) What the kelp? Perhaps they should have nixed the hand-holding and just wrapped themselves in long strands of kelp? The kelp, acting like an anchor, offers a better chance of preventing rogue otter flotillas forming off the coast in Alaska.
Image: Two sea otters float in the water at Kenai Fjords National Park, Alaska. NPS/Kay White
