Quarantine Cafe: Baby Sea Otters Edition

Fun Fact: the name "sea otter" is derived from the Algonquin Indian name for them, which is, if I have the correct Algonquin spelling, "Otters of the Sea."

No but really, from Wikipedia:

The word otter derives from the Old English word otor or oter. This, and cognate words in other Indo-European languages, ultimately stem from the Proto-Indo-European language root *wo'dr, which also gave rise to the English word "water"

The asterisk before that indicates it's not a real, known word, but a hypothesized one.

More fun facts about otters, from Wikipedia:

An otter's den is called a holt or couch. Male otters are called dogs or boars, females are called bitches or sows, and their offspring are called pups.[6] The collective nouns for otters are bevy, family, lodge, romp (being descriptive of their often playful nature) or, when in water, raft.[7][8]

The feces of otters are typically identified by their distinctive aroma, the smell of which has been described as ranging from freshly mown hay to putrefied fish;[9] these are known as spraints.[10]

"Spraints." lol. That word seems like it will be useful going forward.

This is cute: mama otters wrap their pups in seaweed to keep them from floating away, while mama is underwater hunting fish.

Rescued otter pup:

Mama otter tries to get baby otter to shaddup:

Otter pup rolls to mama:

And, thanks to Jane D'oh -- too adorable.

If you think about it, the weasel family is one of the best-looking groups of animals on earth.

Finally: an Indian Gliding Tree-Otter.

posted by Ace at 08:00 PM

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