Saturday, May 25, 2013

Things you otter know

Today Is a very cloudy day in Seward, yesterday was a cloudless blue sky and now it is so foggy that you cant even see the mountains, it looks like they were chopped down or just sank into the ocean. Its very bizarre and a little eerie. The tourist season has started this weekend, a ginormous cruise ship seemed to take up the entire harbor as loads of people got off. I think they will be docked here for the weekend. The normally silent streets are bustling with activity and people.
The other day I hiked partway up the jeep trail on mount marathon. Seward's only somewhat famous event is a race called the mount marathon race. Basically they run three miles literally straight up the mountain and then straight back down. Its a huge deal here and everybody trains for months. To me it sounds awful and even hiking up the non-steep part winded me. Maybe thats because I am just really out of shape though.

Still not much activity at the rehab center, just the one otter. So i'll give you some otter facts. Otters are very needy creatures, if they are separated from their mom for more than a couple of hours basically they cannot survive. So thats where we come in! Also once taken from the wild they cannot be re-released. there is no way we can teach them to hunt and forage, so we send them to zoos that are in need of an otter because they won't survive in the wild. They have very high metabolisms and have to be fed every three hours. They are the only marine mammal that does not have blubber to keep them warm, instead they have many layers of thick fur that keep them warm and need to be constantly groomed. This is why oil spills are so deadly for otters. If they get even a little bit of oil on their fur it does not groom out, so they start rapidly losing heat from this spot, not matter how small. Otters don't really drink, they get all of their hydration from the food they eat.

Well there you go some interesting otter facts. Hopefully something exciting will happen around here and I can wow you guys with crazy stories. But thats all for now!

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