Some days you just need a little good news, and this one is otterly heart-warming. In October, along the central California coast, a sea otter pup got separated from his mother and was facing real trouble, not knowing how fur away his mother was. Fortunately, some humans heard his cries and went to the rescue.
It was a foggy October afternoon on the central California coast when the Marine Mammal Center got a call on their public hotline: there were distressed cries coming from the frigid waters in Morro Bay.
The center’s experts were able to determine that the calls — which sounded almost like a human baby screeching — were coming from a roughly 2-week-old sea otter pup that had been separated from its mother.
That could be deadly for young sea otters, according to Shayla Zink, who works at the center in Morro Bay.
“That pup is really relying on everything it learns from the mother to be able to survive in the ocean,” Zink said, adding that a mother sea otter cares for her pup for up to nine months, often carrying her small baby on her chest.
The employees at the center, with the help of the Morro Bay Harbor Patrol, jumped into action in what would be an hours long journey.
For the duration of the rescue, they gave the pup the name Caterpillar, because why wouldn't you?
After making sure Caterpillar was as comfortable as they could make him, they recorded his cries, loaded him in a boat with a Bluetooth speaker, and went looking for Mama. The baby, after all, clearly needed kelp.
Read More: Now Here's a Story You Otter Read
Mother and Child Attacked by Otter - Wildlife Officials Otterly Amazed
“Our intern had kept hitting play every once a minute,” she said. “I think we all went home and it was still playing over and over in our brains.”
Eventually, a female otter popped her head above water and followed the boat, which is behavior that Zink said wasn’t normal since otters typically only sleep, eat and groom their thick, furry coats — uninterested in humans on boats.
But this female otter was persistent, Zink said. Zink played the speaker on one side of the boat and then ran to play it on the other — and each time the otter followed her.
Eventually, once they felt certain that the otter was looking for her baby, the Zink lowered the pup into the water. Video shows the mother swimming over to her baby, who floats helplessly on its back. Eventually, the mom grabs her baby in her arms and appears to smell him, running her small hands over its dense fur.
That's a heartwarming image right there, and that's for sure and for certain.
Sea otters are funny critters. They feed almost exclusively on shellfish and generally eat while floating on their backs, using their tummies as tables. Sometimes they will bring a rock up from the bottom to use as an anvil to bash open a clam or oyster against. They will also occasionally wrap a bit of kelp around one leg to keep them from drifting in the current while dining.
They have the easygoing life all tide up.
As of this writing, there has been no response or expression of thanks from the secretive sea otter government - the Otterman Empire.
I'll be here all week.
Look, to get the very best of these kinds of tails, you otter sign up for a RedState VIP program. It will give you a warm, fuzzy feeling, knowing you're reading what has to be the most otterly reliable news and commentary.
Join RedState VIP and use the promo code FIGHT to get 60% off your VIP membership!
Join the conversation as a VIP Member