Welcome Baby...Otter!

There’s nothing like the miracle of birth to bring give you the feels. This mama otter decided to swim up and have her “home-birth” near the Monterey Bay Aquarium by San Francisco with an amazed audience, researchers and lucky for us — a camera present.  *Reminder, this a a birth…it’s not super-graphic…but it is a birth.

A Monterey Bay Aquarium post on Facebook shared the video of a pregnant wild sea otter that swam into their tide pool on the weekend where they had the unique opportunity to witness a mama sea otter give birth up close. You can hear people cheering in the background, and I don’t know about you — but I find it totally emotional to see her nurturing her baby…

The Aquarium says “Sea otters can give birth in water or on land. You’ll notice that mom starts grooming her pup right away to help it stay warm and buoyant—a well-groomed sea otter pup is so buoyant it’s practically unsinkable! For more video of the birth (spoiler alert: the miracle of life is graphic!) check out our YouTube channel. Besides keeping the pup afloat, grooming also helps get the blood flowing and other internal systems revved up for a career of chomping on invertebrates and keeping nearshore ecosystems, like the kelp forests in Monterey Bay, and the eel grass at Elkhorn Slough, healthy.

Our sea otter researchers have been watching wild otters for years and have never seen a birth close up like this. We’re amazed and awed to have had a chance to witness this Monterey Bay conservation success story first hand in our own backyard. Welcome to the world, little otter!”

I love the moment when she looks up from grooming the baby and peeks at the thrilled humans watching her touching moment.

Mel Z