The aquarium expects the otters to make a full recovery.
Source: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/otters-georgia-aquarium-test-positive-covid-19-n1264431
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Ben Kesslen
Research also provides evidence otters have capacity for long-term memory
Source: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/otters-surprise-scientists-by-learning-how-to-solve-puzzles-from-one-another-b1720538.html
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Harry Cockburn
There were once hundreds of thousands of sea otters in the Pacific Northwest. Indigenous people hunted them sustainably for thousands of years. But in the 1740s, with the advent of the Pacific Maritime Fur Trade, people began hunting them at a far larger scale, selling their thick, luxurious fur for increasing…
Source: https://earther.gizmodo.com/study-suggests-its-time-to-bring-back-sea-otters-which-1843988544
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Dharna Noor on Earther, shared by Brian Kahn to Gizmodo
Why do otters juggle? It sounds like the opening to a joke, but many otters are frequently seen shifting pebbles back and forth between their hands, an activity referred to by scientists as “juggling.” While animal behaviorists have thought that the juggling is a way for the animals to practice pulling meat from shellfish, crustaceans, and mollusks, a task that requires fine motor skills and coordination. However, researcher Mari-Lisa Allison and colleagues from the University of Exeter found that otters who frequently juggled didn’t exhibit any better food-picking skills. Turns out they’re probably just doing it because it’s fun. From Science News:
The possible disconnect between play and real-life skills doesn’t startle Gordon Burghardt of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Over decades, he has analyzed play behavior, refining definitions and even reporting play in such unexpected animals as a turtle romping with a basketball in a zoo. The thinking about the evolution of play has by now expanded beyond simple notions of the benefits of instinctive practice, he says[…]
Otters that juggle may be doing so “for pleasure, out of boredom, or both,” he says.
“The drivers and functions of rock juggling in otters” (Royal Society Open Science)
Source: https://boingboing.net/2020/05/06/why-do-otters-juggle.html
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The Article Was Written/Published By: David Pescovitz
