When Chetwynd RCMP officers were called to a rural property in May 2018, they found two dogs calmly lying in an enclosure with three dead goats. The woman who had called police hadn’t seen the attack on her family’s pet goats and didn’t know the dogs, but she was afraid of what they might do […]
Tag: Sea Otter
Alaska SeaLife Center Needs Support Rehabilitating Animals
The Guardian recently published news that the Alaska SeaLife Center (ASLC), an aquatic rehabilitation, scientific research, and education site, has had trouble during 2020, during the coronavirus pandemic. The ASLC rescues and rehabilitates animals like Pushki, a sea otter, and is the only facility in the state to do so. With visitors down because of […]
Alaskan tribes, activists and businesses sue to save America’s biggest national forest
A coalition of Alaskan native tribes, conservation groups and small businesses have filed a lawsuit in an effort to save America’s largest national forest by overturning one of the Trump administration’s most contentious environmental rollbacks. Protection for the Tongass national forest in Alaska, one of the world’s last intact temperate rainforests, which plays a crucial […]
Reintroducing sea otters is good for the environment and the economy, and both matter
Does the thought of coming face-to-face with a predator terrify you? Wish they would all just disappear? Not so fast. Eliminating predators is one of the major ways humans damage ecosystems, since many predators act as a keystone species that hold complex food webs together. Predator removal may seem reasonable due to concerns over human […]
Furry engineers: sea otters in California’s estuaries surprise scientists
When Brent Hughes started studying the seagrass beds of Elkhorn Slough, an estuary in Monterey Bay on California’s central coast, he was surprised by what he found. In this highly polluted estuary, excessive nutrients from agricultural runoff spur the growth of algae on seagrass leaves, which kills the plants. Yet in 2010, Hughes noticed that […]
Otter escapes jaws of killer whale by jumping on board boat
Remarkable footage shows the moment that a sea otter escapes a killer whale by leaping on board a nearby boat. John Dornellas, 37, says the mammal frantically swam towards his boat in a seemingly unlikely effort to evade the orca’s clutches. Then, in a cunning ploy to avoid being eaten in Alaska’s Halibut Cove Lagoon, […]
How sea otters help save the planet
Charles Darwin once mused on the impacts that predators could have on the landscapes around them. In particular, he wondered – in On the Origin of Species – how neighbourhood cats might affect the abundance of flowers in the fields near his house at Downe in Kent. He concluded the animals’ potential to change local […]
Toxic Algae Causing Brain Damage, Memory Loss in Sea Lions
A toxin produced by marine algae can impair sea lions’ memory, scientists reported Monday, making it difficult for sick sea lions to find their way to food. Large growths, or blooms, of the algae off the coast of California may have contributed to the unprecedented number of starving sea lions that have washed up on […]