September 29, 2005 – otter relaxation

As we've seen before, sea otters spend a lot of time grooming. In the lagoon north of Jetty Road, this otter was resting in shallow water, grooming its hindquarters.

After rolling over several times...

...it cruised into deeper water.

Now the surprise: For reasons known only to itself, the otter rolled and pulled a mat of sea lettuce kelp onto its belly. Otters will wrap themselves in the fronds of Macrocystis kelp to anchor themselves at sea, but this was a small patch of free-floating Ulva in shallow water. In any case, it then began grooming its head, eyes half-closed.


Is this a yawn?

The back flippers make it clear that this otter as not been tagged. Do you suppose this could be the same otter we saw (in the same location) that kept putting a piece of styrofoam on its belly?

After several minutes of head grooming, it rolled again and lost the kelp, then returned to shallow water and resumed grooming its hindquarters.