When rescuers found a 2-week-old otter pup alone on Asilomar State Beach on California central coast, they knew exactly what to do.
They took the pup, nicknamed Sunny, to the Aquarium of the Pacific, where a maternal-aged otter named Rey resided—who was also found orphaned alone on a beach as a juvenile.
It’s a full circle moment that saw Rey adopt Sunny through a pioneering surrogate initiative run by the Monterrey Bay Aquarium (MBA).
The 2 are bonding well having been transferred to the MBA’s otter rehabilitation center in Long Beach. Staff have been determined that it’s no longer possible to release the two otters back into the wild as they’re already too accustomed to humans, and lack the experience to avoid a sea otter’s main dangers.
Nevertheless, Sunny needs to learn how to be an otter, and the Guardian reports that Rey is teaching her vital skills like how to find, catch, and open food, irrespective of where her future home will be.
Though the two are destined for an aquarium enclosure, the otter program has successfully rehabilitated 9 southern sea otters and released them back into the wild, in part because of this surrogacy program that gives otter pups a chance to survive to adulthood when they had no hope of doing so otherwise.
Megan Smylie, the sea otter program manager at MBA, said that the two were seen manipulating false crab shells, an important foraging skill. Next up may be the use of tools, a skill that the ultra-intelligent sea otter is quite proficient in. They’ve been recorded opening doors and unscrewing nuts from bolts.
Rey isn’t neglecting the lovey-dovey part of motherhood either, and when it’s time for a nap, will pull Sunny onto her chest belly-up to relax her. It doesn’t matter what species you are, motherhood is hard work, but Rey seems to excel at it.
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