Besides, they also prefer to eat crabs, large barnacles, mussels, snails, tubeworms, clams, squid, octopuses, chitons, scallops, sea cucumbers, sea stars and abalone. Part of sea otters’ high susceptibility to exposure is due to their diet. Eagles can be a problem too for the smaller Otters and the young. A large male may consume as much as 11 kg (25 lb.) They open the shells of some of their prey, with stones and a piece of wood. They burn calories at three times the rate of humans and must consume 20-30% of their body weight daily. Sea otters eat invertebrates such as sea urchis, clams, crabs, etc. Sea otters are sea mammals native to the eastern and northern parts of the North Pacific Ocean. According to James Estes, sea otter populations have dropped dramatically in Alaska and the Aleutian Islands. They have a unique foraging habit because they use rocks to kill their prey. Although many of the bears are content with scavenging dead otters, some have, over the years, developed a taste for fresh otter meat.eval(ez_write_tag([[250,250],'factsking_com-large-mobile-banner-2','ezslot_9',134,'0','0'])); Eared seals, also referred to as otariids, are another predator of sea otters. diving sea ducks, benthic feeding fishes, lobsters and predatory sea stars) feed on many of the same prey species as sea otters, none appear to effectively compete with sea otters for food. Bald eagles get over 90 percent of their food from the ocean.eval(ez_write_tag([[250,250],'factsking_com-leader-1','ezslot_7',132,'0','0'])); Sea otters were once dominant in the coastal marine environments, not far from the islands. It is only after biting the sea otters that white sharks realize their mistake. Create a free website or blog at WordPress.com. Besides, they eat some fish species, and various crustaceans and mollusks. An average of 55 freshly produced empty abalone shells, equivalent to °20% of the crevice population of live abalones, were found each month in our study area over a 12—mo period. Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Today, they roam the American continent’s mountains and forests. Sometimes, though, otters get caught fishermen’s nets.eval(ez_write_tag([[300,250],'factsking_com-box-4','ezslot_4',129,'0','0'])); One of the biggest predators of sea otters are coyotes. Because of their voracious appetite, they are occasionally accused of driving their prey species into decline by fishermen who compete for the same prey species.  Sea otters eat about 25% of their weight every day, and is arguably the number one cause in sea otter deaths, when they cannot forage enough food to feed themselves. ( Log Out /  Whales Prey On Sea Otters October 15, 1998 / 6:05 PM / AP Killer whales that normally hunt seals and sea lions are now feeding on sea otters … Otters eat up to 30 percent of their body weight each day, and when they prey on lots of shellfish and urchins, kelp forests can regrow and give salmon and rockfish and others a place to stay. Predators and Prey of the Sea Otter The sea otter’s diet includes about 40 marine species, including urchins, crabs, clams, abalones, mussels, and snails. Although, their whiskers are robust and thick like their seal and sea lion counterparts, they never traded their front paws for flippers. Eagles may also grab young otters if given the opportunity. Sea otters consume over 100 prey species. Sea otters (Enhydra lutris) are not like other marine mammals. However, with the decline in sea otter populations, bald eagles have to turn to marine fish. Consequently, the kelp forest ecosystem is gradually collapsing.  In the Arctic, killer whales often dine on sea otters, while in the Californian coast, great white sharks consume many otters each year. To hunt prey, sea otters have been known to dive as deep as 320 feet; however, males mostly forage at depths of around 260 feet and females about 180 feet. Change ), You are commenting using your Twitter account. Sea otters eat a wide variety of prey, including marine invertebrates such as echinoderms ( sea stars and sea urchins), crustaceans (e.g., crabs), cephalopods (e.g., squid), bivalves (clams, mussels, abalone), gastropods (snails), and chitons. They use the rock as a table against which they smash their shelled prey to … Scientists have sought to establish why white sharks would be attacking sea otters, yet they don’t feed on them.  The sea otter’s predator depends on where the specific sea otter lives. In this predator-prey relationship, where the urchin is the prey and main source of food for the sea otter, sea urchins play a large role in the population growth for the otter (Costa, 2011). Thus, the sea otter is one of the very few mammals to make an effective use of tools (t… Further, they consume cephalopods, birds, crustaceans, and, occasionally, other pinnipeds. This increase has seen it compete for clams with the brown bear. In the water they need to watch out for both sharks and killer whales. Sea otters are considered a keystone species and play a major role in the community by controlling herbivorous invertebrates.Sea otters prey on sea urchins, thereby preventing sea urchins from overgrazing the kelp forest.This allows the kelp forest … Common predators of sea otters include various predatory marine mammals such as orcas and sea lions. Like many other animals, sea otters find their safety in numbers. At our study site within their range, sea otters selected abalones larger than were proportionately available in crevices, and they broke many large shells with stone tools. But that study did not map food abundance in specific parts of the bay. Other than sea otters, sea lions prey on squids, whiting, lamprey, herring, dogfish, anchovy, rockfish, sandlance, arrowtooth flounder, salmon, and clams, among others. They use the fur to make handicrafts. Their diet varies according to regions and has changed significantly through time. Research has shown that sea otters are vital to the health of carbon-absorbing kelp forests. If sea otter populations in these areas continue to decline, what might happen with populations of sea urchins and kelp? According to the Seattle Aquarium, sea otters consume around 25 percent of their body weight in food every day to … This has led to a decline in sea otter numbers, especially in western Alaska.  Other predators include sea lions in certain areas, as well as eagles, which eat otter pups. In fact, sea otters do not cause local extinction of species. The predators that Otters will encounter depend on where they happen to live. Change ), You are commenting using your Google account. They’re members of the pinnipeds family that also includes fur seals and sea lions. Southern sea otters (Enhydra lutris nereis), in recovering from near extinction, are gradually extending their range to include areas from which they have been absent for more than one hundred years. However, these two have experienced a significant decline in their population. Sea otters are pretty petite compared to other marine mammals. Change ), Sea Otters and Their Role in the Ecosystem. Sea otters eat about 25% of their weight every day, and is arguably the number one cause in sea otter deaths, when they cannot forage enough food to feed themselves. Coyotes have a strong sense of smell and excellent vision. Researchers recently tested how sea otters distinguish objects with the sense of touch. Sea otters eat between 20-35% of their own body weight daily. But, did you know that sea otters have animals that prey on them too? The two are directly related in that sea otters prey on sea urchins, which in turn can help foster kelp beds because urchins feast on kelp. Sea otters have a baggy patch of skin under their forelimbs which is used for storage. Sea otters spend much of their day foraging for more than fifty kinds of marine invertebrate prey including mussels, clams, abalone, octopuses, crabs and sea urchins. Interestingly, the predators do not actually feed on the otters. ( Log Out /  They prey mostly on marine invertebrates, with sea urchins being their favorite. While several other consumers (e.g. Sea otters are carnivores that feed on an array of marine species—mostly invertebrates like crabs, clams, urchins, snails and worms. Other than sea otters, eared seals also feed on krill (an animal that closely resembles a shrimp), lobsters, crabs, crustaceans such as shrimps, and fish, among others.eval(ez_write_tag([[336,280],'factsking_com-leader-2','ezslot_10',135,'0','0'])); White shark attacks are a leading cause of death among sea otters, especially in California. Many farmers and ranchers regard them as destructive pests because they kill calves, lambs, and other livestock, as well as pets.eval(ez_write_tag([[300,250],'factsking_com-large-leaderboard-2','ezslot_5',131,'0','0'])); Bald eagles reside in their numbers along the Aleutian archipelago off the Alaskan coast. 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