Sea Otters Share Their Habitat With What Other Important Organisms

Some crawl using podia while others use peristalic locomotion muscle contractions. The alaskan sea otter population numbered more than 100000 in the 1980s.

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They eat sea urchins and other invertebrates that graze on giant kelp.

Sea otters share their habitat with what other important organisms. Sea otters eat many kinds of invertebrates including sea urchins abalone clams crabs snails sea stars squid octopuses. Most sea otters remain in habitats with rocky substrate as their prey tend to be more plentiful in these areas. The only time the male and females are together is during mating.

In soft bottom habitats the sea otter interact with smaller animals such as pismo clams crabs and snails. See also interactions. They lay on their sides.

Sea otters are one of the few animals that use tools. After hunting on the seafloor sea otters return to the surface to eat. Without sea otters these grazing animals can destroy kelp forests and consequently the wide diversity of animals that depend upon kelp habitat for survival.

The grazers in turn kept the eelgrass blades clean and healthy. As sea otters reclaimed their role as predators in this estuary they helped restore balance to this important habitat connecting land to sea. By controlling the number of crabs sea otters helped sea slugs and other tiny marine grazers flourish.

Sea otters are the only fully aquatic form of otters but they share features with the others such as thick fur and short ears. Long bodied organisms with mouth at one end and anus at the other. Sea otters are so highly adapted to their environment that they have trouble walking on land.

Sea otters share their habitat with what other important organisms kelp and sea urchins if you remove the starfish from a shoreline area what happens to the mussel populations. Habitat of the sea otter sea otters prefer coastal habitats within a mile of the shoreline. Although sea otters belong to the same family as weasels and river otters they live in a vastly different habitat than these more terrestrial oriented cousins.

Since the 1990s the southwestern stock of alaskan sea otters has experienced a dramatic up to 70 population decline most likely due to increased predation by killer whales. Sea otters that live in rocky bottom habitats interact with organisms such as lobsters sea urchins and abalone. Sea cucumbers lack arms and have reduced endoskeletons so they are soft bodied.

There may be fewer than 1000 marine otters left throughout their range. Sea otters are carnivores in the family mustelidae a group of animals that also includes terrestrial and semi aquatic forms such as weasels badgers skunks fishers minks and river otters. They are frequently found in protected harbors barrier reefs and kelp forests that offer shelter from wind and waves.

Floating on its back and using its chest as a table.

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