It’s not every day that an animal breaks into a zoo.
But that’s what happened earlier this week at the Monterey Bay Aquarium in California, when a wild sea otter swam into the facility’s tide pool to give birth.
The female sea otter had been spotted wading into the open-access basin for several days, likely seeking shelter from winter storms.
Then, around 8:30 a.m. California time on Dec. 20, aquarium staff noticed that she had a fluffy pup lying on her belly.
The baby otter became fluffier before their eyes, the aquarium said, and was “being furiously groomed by a proud momma.”
The Monterey Bay Aquarium is perched on the edge of Monterey Bay, and sea otters are known to sometimes wade into the tide pool from the ocean.
“Hope we’ll see them again soon!” the aquarium posted on Twitter.
The aquarium has run a sea otter conservation program for more than 30 years. It estimates that after nearing extinction in the early 1800s, about 3,000 sea otters now call central California home.
https://www.thestar.com/news/world/...nimal-gives-birth-at-california-aquarium.html
