The southern sea otter lives along the central California coast. It is found in marine habitats with rocky or muddy sea bottoms and is frequently associated with kelp beds. Occasionally, the southern sea otter will venture onto land. 

The southern sea otter is dark to reddish brown in color and has a long, stout body, a short broad head and a snout with whiskers. It has webbed hind feet that can be spread wide like flippers, making the southern sea otter well adapted for swimming. Its forepaws are smaller with retractile claws and are hand-like when used to groom, eat and hold tools for breaking open prey. The southern sea otter has blunt, rounded teeth that crush shelled, invertebrate prey. Its body is covered in a dense fur that must constantly be groomed to maintain its insulating properties and cleanliness. The life span of the male sea otter is about 15 years while the female sea otter lives to be about 20 years old. The sea otter’s life span is longer in an aquarium or zoo setting.

• The southern sea otter consumes many types of prey including sea urchins, snails, mussels, crabs, scallops, fish, barnacles, octopus, worms and squid, which it captures with its clawed paws, not its jaws.
• It must eat 20 to 25 percent of its body weight every day to maintain normal body temperature, so it will spend much of the day hunting.
• Potential threats to this mammal include entanglement in fishing nets, oil spills and predation by the great white shark.
• The southern sea otter usually submerges for about 52 to 90 seconds, but the longest dive recorded was four minutes and 25 seconds long.
• It is believed that the southern sea otter will wrap itself with kelp to keep from floating away on the waves while they are sleeping.

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