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American Morning

Otters Fight for Survival

Aired July 06, 2001 - 11:51   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: If you want to save the endangered sea otter, you have to think like a sea otter.

And that's exactly what CNN's Ann Kellan did, as you will see.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANN KELLAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This orphaned sea otter pup is getting a lesson in survival. Found off the California coast, it's being raised by researchers at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. The goal, to release it back into the wild. It's part of a program to save southern sea otters from extinction.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Four, five, six, seven.

KELLAN: At last count, there are about 2,000 left. Don't be fooled by these cute faces. Their bite is much worse than the bark. Their fur is dense. Where the average human head has 100,000 hairs, otters have about a million hairs per square inch. That's one reason they were hunted to near extinction in the 1800's. Today, they mostly die of disease.

DR. MIKE MURRAY, VETERINARIAN: It basically tells us this population is not healthy, either suffering from inadequate food supplies, improper food supplies. Is something going on that we are increasing the infectious disease agents that are present in this coastal ecosystem? Are we having problems with the immune system?

MICHELLE STAEDLER, MONTEREY BAY AQUARIUM: In some cases, a lot of the sick or disease that the animals are getting is human-caused. And I think we owe that to the animals to help them overcome these diseases and care for them, and then try and return them back to the wild.

KELLAN: Related to ferrets, otters are thought to be the last mammal species to return to the water. They have the back flippers of a sea dweller and the front claws of a land mammal. They don't have the insulating layers of fat to cope with frigid Pacific waters that whales or dolphins have. That's why when otters aren't sleeping they're constantly moving or fluffing up their thick fur. Without air flowing through it for added warmth, they would die.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Good girl! KELLAN: And can they eat. These aquarium otters have it easy. A 50-pound otter will chow down about 12 pounds of shellfish a day, that they crack open with their powerful jaws, or bang open with rocks. That's what diver Karl Mayer is trying to teach this pup to do. Today, All she wants to do is play.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The animals tend to bond to humans, and that's one of the drawbacks for us.

KELLAN: That's why, now, caretakers don't show their faces, like this, anymore around the pups. They wear disguises, And don't talk around them, hoping to reduce the pup's attachment to humans.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's another one!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, they are eating.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, yes!

KELLAN: No one can say whether efforts to save these otters will work. Here people say it's worth a try.

MURRAY: It really is our canary in the coal mine, and if it really lets us know what is going on in this coastal ecosystem. So, if we have this predator at the very top of the food chain that's having problems, it really is Mother Nature's tap on the shoulder that we should look a little bit more carefully at what's happening in these coastal waters.

KELLAN: Ann Kellan, CNN, Monterey, California.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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