Warming oceans and changing marine conditions due to climate change and ocean acidification make it harder for the whale, which has an exceptionally long migratory and gestation period, to prosper and further threaten the species survival. They are very different from other mammals that share the seals name or lineage. The Asian small-clawed otter is "slimmer" and smaller, with smooth fur and a face that looks like it is smiling. I'm a freelance writer with 8 years of experience. Sea otters are slow swimmers, while their river-living counterparts are rather agile. The pups learn their mothers voice to avoid confusion of the mother feeding another seals pups. Still, the attempts to mate with seals requires an explanation. This results in river otters having short, sleek fur, while sea otters have long, fuzzy fur. Sea otters must eat 20-25% of their body weight to maintain their body temperature. First, sea otters are two to three times the size of river otters and, when at the water's surface, they float on their backs, while river otters swim belly down like most animals. They have short limbs with webbed feet. Email Us, Board of Fisheries and Game: Actions & Activities, Threatened, Endangered, and Diversity Program, Alaska Resources Library and Information Services (ARLIS), About the Division of Commercial Fisheries, Western Alaska Salmon Stock Identification Program (WASSIP), Online General Season & Registration Permits, Subsistence and Personal Use Fishing Permits, CSIS Community Subsistence Information System, The Technical Papers and Special Publications Series, Special Status page for northern sea otter. River otters are more petite. Considered a cousin of the weasel, otters are known for their elongated bodies, webbed feet, and playful antics, particularly their love of sliding down rocks, banks, or waterfalls. Sea otters have an average lifespan of 12-15 years in the wild while river otters live an average of 9-12 years. Seals themselves have been observed to cause similar kinds of trauma when groups of males mob females. In the U.S. the dwarf seahorse, one-inch-long seahorse, found in seagrass beds in the Gulf of Mexico, Florida and the Caribbean, is threatened with extinction due to decline of seagrass and lingering pollution from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, according to the Center for Biological Diversity. They display sexual dimorphism. Asian Small-Clawed Otters will live around 12 years in captivity but lifespan in the wild is really unknown, with an estimated number of 5,000 left in the world. Im going to ruin sea otters for you. One of the main differences between a river otter vs sea otter is their species or genus classification. For males, the difference is also significant a southern male grows up to 70 pounds while a northern male can reach up to 100 pounds! Your Generous Gift Will Help Us Continue To Protect Our Ocean And Its Wildlife. The Northern sea otter and the Southern sea otter, but in actuality, this is the one and only species of otter that is a lifelong ocean-dweller. All of this is only the barest catalog of common and widespread phenomena in nature that we often shy away from examining, as we have great difficulty divorcing our own sense of morality from a wilderness that does not and cannot share our values. Sea otters are bigger and thus have larger feet than river otters. Not only do these two creatures have different habitats, but they have both evolved fur to best suit those habitats. Alaska sea otters are slightly larger than . Sea otters have the densest fur in the entire animal kingdom with up to one million hairs covering each square inch of their body. And always keep in mind where youre looking if youre at the ocean, chances are youre looking at a sea otter as opposed to a river otter. When you click and buy we may earn an affiliate commission at no cost to you. and weighing just 1 to 5 kg (2.2-11 lbs.). They give birth on the land. River otters tend to eat frogs, fish, crayfish, reptiles, and birds. Levick recorded these behaviors as aberrations from the norm of nature. Many creatures dwell in the water, and some of them are difficult to tell apart. The dark sides of otters, dolphins, and penguins are just as much a part of their nature as the parts we find so squee-inducingly adorable. Thats quite the size difference! When it comes to having pups, one fact that distinguishes sea otters from river otters is the number of pups they have per litter. Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for W178 CENTEX Centex Charmyland Saru Gorilla Sea Otter Walrus Penguin Rockhoppe at the best online prices at eBay! What is the difference between Otter and Seal? Keep reading to learn more about what makes each of these species unique. Copyright 2023. With 13 species around the world, you can find an otter species located on almost every continent! They include; walrus, eared seals, sea lions, fur seals, and earless seals. When seen for the first time, the Adlie penguin gives you the impression of a very smart little man. The identity of a pair of repeat offenders held a clue. The naturalistic fallacy refers to the misguided belief that whatever is natural is good. What sea otters, dolphins, and penguins sometimes do to one another in their attempts to mate can make us feel queasy, but this is just one sort of animal behaviors that have been unsettling us since the Victorian era. Its without a doubt that otters are some of the most adorable mammals to ever grace the planet. Previously, Brian Switek has written about mammoth end-times, and how feathery, fluffy dinosaurs killed the brontosaurus. Conversely, river otters mate with multiple partners during the course of their lives. Otters use two layers of dense fur to keep warm when they are submerged in the water, and that is most of their lives. difference between sea otter and penguin. At Rocky Shores you can explore a far Northwest world where land and ocean meet; where sea lions dive, seals splash and otters play. Seals belong to the Phocidae family, and otters belong to the Mustelidae family. Wannabe mother primates may steal the baby of another and unintentionally starve that infant in a phenomenon called aunting to death. Dominant wild dogs may kill the offspring of subordinate members of the pack to make sure the alphas infants get the most food. When they are not in the water, river otters forage the land for food and build burrows or dens for their young. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. The main difference between otter and seal is that Otters are comparatively smaller in body size while seals are comparatively larger in body size. Sea otters are generally diurnal. There are 13 species of otters. We focus on how to be proactive in finding solutions. Peregrine Falcon; Oyster vs. Butterfly; Lobster vs. Red Knot (voting closed) WINNERS: Sea Turtle, Falcon, Butterfly, Red Knot.Day 63/26: Polar Bear vs. Pangolin; Koala vs. Wolverine (voting closed) WINNERS: Polar Bear, Wolverine.Day 73/27: Sea Horse vs. Whale; Sea Otter vs. Penguin (voting closed) WINNERS: Sea Horse, Sea Otter.Day 83/30: Elephant vs. Mountain Goat; Moose vs. Narwhal (voting NOW OPEN)Day 93/31: Sea Turtle vs. Red Knot; Butterfly vs. All contents 2023 The Slate Group LLC. Inside pregnant sand tiger sharks, for example, the first embryo to grow large enough rapidly devours all the other unborn sharks in its shared womb. Ocean Conservancy, International Coastal Cleanup, Trash Free Seas, Trash Free Seas Alliance, Global Ghost Gear Initiative, Urban Ocean and Clean Swell are registered trademarks of Ocean Conservancy. There are about 33 species in this family. Plus, their overall diets, lifespans, and locations differ from one another, not to mention how different they are in appearance! For example, sea lions are sometimes believed to be seals, but that is not the case. Contact us today. Seals are larger than otters, weighing a lot more than them and growing much longer. But how do we tell the difference between river otters and sea otters? We can find beauty and poetry in nature, but we can also find terror and savagery, all essential parts of the entire picture. Which would you like to know more about? Additionally, sea otters spend the vast majority of their lives in the water, while river otters spend most of theirs on land, venturing into the water for tasks like hunting for food and traveling. Learn how to tell them apart quickly and easily! Adult sea otters may grow up to 5 feet in . Such behavior led ornithologist Douglas Mock and colleagues to write Occasionally, the pen of natural selection writes a murder mystery on the pages of evolution. I graduated from Rowan University in 2014 with degrees in English and Education. Can You Eat Clownfish and How Does It Taste? They average around 2 feet in length and weigh around 10 pounds. True seals use blubber deposits under their skin to keep themselves warm when theyre in the water, which is quite often. Both are good swimmers but when we compare the two, the seals win because of their streamlined bodies and flippers that enable them to move in water fast. At Georgia Aquarium, we are home to two species of otter Asian small-clawed ottersandsouthern sea otters. River otters keep their young safe by their side and in dens that they build on riverbanks, while sea otter moms typically keep their pups nestled on their stomachs as they float until they are old enough to swim on their own. As ethologist Sarah Hrdy has observed, there are various reasons for infanticide. These are the major differences between seals and otters, and their unique qualities become even more prominent when you look closer at these two creatures. However, there some traits and features that make them different from each other. This is likely due to their respective sizes and predators in their environments, as sea otters grow much larger than river otters do. Male sea otters typically grasp the female from behind and bite her face, and this rough behavior was associated with the deaths of about 11 percent of dead sea otters discovered between 2000 and 2003. They are also known as fin-footed mammals. They have the densest fur of all mammals at about 350,000 to 1,000,000 hairs per square inch. Its actually quite easy to understand the physical differences between sea otters and river otters once we understand that there is actually only one species of true sea otter. Rhinoceros Facts Lion Facts Elephant Facts Giraffe Facts Flamingo Facts Chimpanzee Facts Penguin Facts Panda Facts Python Facts Great White Shark Facts Tiger Facts Skunk Facts Seal Facts Sea Turtle Facts Porcupine Facts Panther Facts Ostrich Facts Komodo Dragon Facts Hippopotamus Facts . They live in or near oceans. Sea otters must groom regularly to help maintain the insulation. Today, were in round two of the Sweet Sixteen, and the winners of our Fins and Flippers division are going head to head. Although both seals and otters come in various sizes due to their many species, seals are almost always larger than otters. To meet the wonderful sloths that call SeaQuest home, book your visit today at any of the following locations: Utah, Las Vegas, Dallas-Fort Worth, Denver, Sacramento, Minneapolis, Connecticut, Lynchburg, New Jersey, and Atlanta. Thanks for signing up for Ocean Conservancy emails. If you spot an otter in the Chesapeake Bay, its a river otter, whereas if you spot one in Monterey Bay (especially in the water), the chances are high that its a sea otter. If youre on a river in the middle of the North American continent, far away from any seaboard: its a river otter. There are many distinguishing features between a river otter vs sea otter. Seals spend less time in the water than otters. Sea otters also notably have two very large back feet, webbed and streamlined for paddling and swift swimming in unpredictable ocean waters. In addition, sea otters tend to live in small to large familial groups, but river otters, especially males, are more territorial, and while they will be social, they prefer solitary lives or in small family groups. Who will you choose? There are so many amazing creatures that dwell in the waters of planet earth, and some of may seem so similar in nature, yet they are difficult to tell apart. They even have the adorable habit of floating on their backs, even while theyre eating, and have been known to hold hands with each other while sleeping so they dont drift apart from their pals! The species are either aquatic or semi-aquatic depending on the species. When I'm not writing personally or professionally, you can find me camping along the Oregon coast with my high school sweetheart and Chihuahua mix, or in my home kitchen, perfecting recipes in a gleaming cast iron skillet. While sea otters use their two webbed hind feet and tail to propel them through the water, the four webbed feet of river otters are what enable them to swim efficiently. If we truly wish to appreciate sea otters, dolphins, penguins, and the rest, we need to consider them as they truly are and not just as the cuddly caricatures that never cease to make us go Awww.. Given the violence and depravity were capable of, were not exactly models of morality. They spend time in the water foraging for mollusks, fish, frogs and crustaceans. The elephant seal can weigh up to 6,000lbs and grows 20ft long. Dolphin Coast Presented by Margaritaville by Wyndham, Beginning Environmental Leadership Program, Next Up: Sea Lion Pup Born at Georgia Aquarium, Alliance of Marine Mammals Parks & Aquariums (AMMPA), International Marine Animal Trainer's Association (IMATA). Its as easy as that! Their unique bodies make it easy to tell the creatures apart. Contact Us Their diet is composed of meat and protein such as fish, octopuses, lobsters, salmon, eel, mackerel, and squid. As 2022 comes to a close, I am reflecting on everything weve accomplished together on behalf, Climate change touches many aspects of our lives, including the food on our plates. Partially due to that, its believed to be the most endangered cetacean in the world, a category that includes whales, dolphins, and porpoises. (label) A large number or quantity; a vast amount.A sea of faces stared back at the singer. The Key Differences Between Seal vs Otter. Seals are larger than otters, weighing a lot more than them and growing much longer. However, seals split their time on land and in the water almost evenly. Answers: These three are all sea otters (credit: Deanna Lynch/USFWS) while the first and last photos in this blog are river otters (credit: Barry Troutman). Though they may look similar, there are distinct differences between the two. The Asian small-clawed otter is the smallest of all otters, measuring 65 to 94 cm (26-37 in.) What makes each species unique, and what are the signs that make each one recognizable? The main difference between the two species is their size; Asian small-clawed otters are the smallest otters in the world, while sea otters are the largest. They include; walrus, eared seals, sea lions, fur seals, and earless seals. Together, we create evidence-based solutions for a healthy ocean and the wildlife and communities that depend on it. Welcome back to March Sadness, ClimateProgress educational bracket tournament of animals impacted by climate change and other environmental threats. Heres a list of 9 ways that sea otters and river otters are different from one another. Whereas a female southern sea otter grows up to 50 pounds, a female northern sea otter can weigh up to 70 pounds. River otter mothers care for their pups until they are between six and twelve months old. In other species, post-hatching battles begin almost immediately. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. : Love to snack on small fish found close to shore banks, as well as amphibians such as frogs, and crustaceans such as crawdads. Although described as the smallest marine mammal this species is quite large as otters go, reaching as much as 80 lbs. Among birds, parents under stress to provide for their offspring during rough years may boot eggs from their nests or kill some of their own chicks so that others might survive. The other two clawless otters are similar in size to river otters. Additionally, river otters have a very different social structure from sea otters, often preferring solitude over a sea otters committed family structure. The main difference between otter and seal is that Otters are comparatively smaller in body size while seals are comparatively larger in body size. When comparing the sea otter vs river otter, you may wonder if they the same animal. According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, out of around 50 species of seahorses, all but one are vulnerable or threatened. Another motherly difference is how these two creatures care for their young. Youll have a very simple time determining if you are looking at an otter from a true seal with one or two of those factors. Taxonomically speaking, there is actually only one species of sea otter! Male sea otters can weigh up to 99 pounds, while female sea otters typically weigh around 44 pounds. There are only 450 left in the world. Otters fur has guard hairs on the outside layer that are used to keep them protected from moisture and to maintain body temperature. Red Wolf Population (Historically and Currently), Manatee Vs Dugong (Heres the Difference), 6 Types of Water Snakes in Illinois (Pictures). While members of both otter subtypes love to swim, the swimming behaviors they engage in are quite distinct. SeaQuest Blog In terms of colours, seals have thick fur coats that range from pale yellow to light grey and dark brown. Please try again The former can reach up to 5.6 mph (9 kph) underwater, while the latter, in North America, has a maximum speed of 8.7 mph (14 kph). A 2010 study found that a toxin found in blue-green algae called microcystin had killed at least 21 California sea otters. Not only is this useful for staying together, but it also keeps them away from the shore where many of their predators reside. There are 13 species of otters in the world, with 12 of those species requiring access to freshwater and only one species residing in the ocean. River otters actually have two layers of short, coarse fur. The average river otter only weighs 15-20 pounds, while sea otters can reach anywhere from 20-80 pounds depending on their gender and age.