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Why do otters have thick hair?
Sea otters have the thickest fur of any animal. Instead, they depend on their dense, water-resistant fur to provide insulation. To keep warm, sea otters spend a large portion of their days grooming and conditioning their fur. This traps air and heat next to their skin. A sea otter grooms itself to stay warm.
What is so special about otters fur?
Otter fur has two special properties that make it especially good at creating an insulating layer of air: It’s dense, and it’s spiky. Because it relies on the trapped air, otters can’t dive too deep because high pressure forces the bubbles out. Also, the air makes them so buoyant they have to work hard to swim down.
Why do sea otters fluff their fur?
By having such thick fur it allows them to stay incredibly warm and maintaining a constant internal body temperature, this process is known as thermoregulation. Sea otters actually spend a majority of their day grooming themselves, removing knots and tangles, squeezing out water, and removing and debris or dirt.
Do sea otters have thick fur?
Sea otters have two layers of incredibly dense fur, more than a million fibers per square inch. Outer guard hairs are around 1 1/3 inches long and when properly groomed lay flat against the body. Underneath the guard hair is another layer of fur that stays completely dry. The sea otter’s forepaws are very agile.
What is the difference between sea otters and river otters?
First, sea otters are two to three times the size of river otters—and, when at the water’s surface, they float on their backs, while river otters swim belly down like most animals. Next, the tail of a sea otter is short and flattened; a river otter’s tail is long and pointed.
Can you eat an otter?
Sea otters can use both auditory and visual cues to avoid hunters. Sea otter meat is delicious. They eat all the good stuff, so you can expect them to taste delicious as well. I eat some of the meat, but I give much of it away to elders in the community.