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Article: Otters IN THE Balance.
- Article from:
- Animals
- Article date:
- May 1, 2000
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2000 Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Cute little devils. Must have a terrible itch. These are typical first reactions of visitors watching sea otters in the tank at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. In reality, says the aquarium's veterinarian, you could not come up with a harder job than being a sea otter. They are tough animals. Yet off the coast of California, a hundred years after near extinction, they have made only an uncertain comeback.
Where the Pacific Ocean clashes with the rocky shoreline on this sometimes placid, sometimes rock-and-rolling waterbed, the southern sea otter makes its home. From a cliff high above the surf, I hear a squeaking. Through binoculars I see a small dark form afloat on ...