Sea otter

The sea otter is a marine mammal of the North Pacific that spends almost its whole life floating on its back. When sea otters sleep, they often hold paws or wrap themselves in strands of kelp so that they do not drift away from each other or out to sea.^[1] A group of sleeping otters is called a raft, and is the only raft in the world that is held together by politeness.

The rock

Sea otters eat shellfish and use rocks to break them open, floating on their backs with the rock on their chests and banging the shell against it. Many otters keep a favourite rock and carry it in a loose pouch of skin under the forearm between meals.^[2] It is the only animal known to have a pocket and to use it, like everyone else, for a rock it has become attached to.

Geologists who have examined otter rocks report that they are ordinary pebbles and stones. The otters have been informed and have declined to give them up.

Fur

Sea otters have no layer of fat to keep warm. Instead they have the thickest fur of any animal, with up to around a million hairs in a single square inch. Biologists who tried to count them in 1983 gave up at the first square inch, which they now describe as the hardest square inch in science.

See also

• Rock (rock) – its tool and keepsake
• Ocean – its bed
• Pebble – the usual size of otter rock

References

1. Kelp, K. (2004). Holding Hands at Sea. Raft Press.
2. Pocket, P. (1998). “What Is in the Pouch?” Journal of Small Carryings 1: 1. (A rock.)
3. Fuzz, F. (1983). The First Square Inch. Unfinished.