Sea Otter Plays with a Seal

Check out this awesome video of a sea otter playing with an elephant seal. While sea otters interacting with seals isn’t anything new or terribly strange, there are some odd and noteworthy things about this particular interaction.  

Watch the video then scroll down to get the rest of my thoughts on this odd animal interaction.

In no particular order, here are some things that I find really interesting about this video:

• The sea otter is actively coming ashore. Unlike their cousins the river otters, sea otters are much more dependent on the water and rarely come on land. Note how awkward the movement of the otter is when it is walking around on the beach, especially compared to its fluid and graceful movements in the water.
• When I see the sea otter moving about on land, I can’t help but think that the seals’ distant ancestors must’ve gone through an evolutionary phase where their bodies were very similar to the otter’s. Note that the seals back legs have completely evolved into flippers that face backwards, which aids in swimming but forces theM to undulate on their bellies when on land, rather than walk.Perhaps one day, millions of years from now, sea otters will take their marine adaptations even further and lose their legs altogether just as the seals have. When different species that are not closely related (such as seals and otters) exhibit similar body structures or other adaptations, it’s called convergent evolution.  
• Most of the seals in the video look to be harbor seals, but the one the sea otter is intent on interacting with is a young elephant seal. (The elephant seal is larger than the harbor seals and is solid gray, while the harbor seals are mottled in color.) I find this fascinating. What about the elephant seal is interesting to the otter, and why isn’t it trying to play with the harbor seals? The elephant seal seems equally enamored with the otter. I can’t help but conclude that this video shows a great example of the intelligence of these animals in their ability to identify indiviuals and exhibit individual behaviors.

Video via Friends of the Sea Otter Facebook page. Photo by Mike Baird via Flickr Creative Commons.

Get Involved! Protect wildlife with David and the National Wildlife Federation.

It’s not about the animals. It’s about the way animals make us feel. Watch the latest Animal Planet videos and full episodes. Surprisingly Human.

animal.discovery.com/videos/http://animal.discovery.com/videos/