The Sea Otter's Adpatations
Sea otters have developed many physical features to help them adapt to the environment that they live in. From the top of their ears to the tip of their toes, sea otters hold so many amazing things to help them survive.
Because sea otters live in such frigid waters, their body holds many methods to keep them warm. To reduce heat loss, they will float on their back with their feet spreading out of the water. This will shrink the surface area, causing more heat to form. Sea otter's tails are alot smaller then other marine mammals. This is to reduce the surface area and increase heat as well. They also have very thick fur, with a layer of special oil to conceal any heat that comes into contact and trap it inside the fur. There fur tends to sheds water to help them stay warm. There are times although, when sea otters can feel to hot. They can increase heat loss by extending their feet out underwater, which will maximize the surface area, causing less heat to form. There are also several physical features that help sea otters increase their speed when swimming in the water. Their feet are webbed to help them flow nicely in the water, which causes them to pick up speed. The base of their tail can also be very helpful to race amongst the pacific ocean. It is plump, and flattens as it reaches to tip, to increase the speed. Sea otters also bear good eyes to be able to see clearly underwater, as well as long whiskers, growing around the muzzle to detect fish.
A sea otter minimizing surface area.
If Sea Otters Were Placed in a Different Habitat
As you can see, sea otters have completely adapted to their habitat, and wouldn't change it for the life of them. But if you were to remove them from their habitat and place in in a very different one, sea otters would have to grow through multiple difficulties to survive. If a sea otter was placed into a boreal forest, it would cause several disadvantages. For one thing, food sources would be very hard to reach. The sea otter's most preferred food is; sea urchins, abalones, and crabs. Each of these animals live below the ocean surface. Without them, sea otters would most likely starve to death. They also wouldn' t be able to move around efficiently, as their feet are meant to stay in the water.
Sea otters would struggled immensely on land, specifically a forest, because they would never have the food they love provided for them. That aside, if several of their physical features were changed, sea otters could adapt to the environment. They would need firmer hands and feet to support the weight they would constantly be holding. Their feet would also need to not be webbed, and bare a more human-like figure. In the ocean, the water would carry the weight of sea otters, but on land they would have to do it themselves. This would mean, for them to survive, their fur would have to be less dense, about a hundreds times less, as they hold an extreme amount of fur. This would help them to excellerate in speed to run from predators and catch their prey. They would also need strongers noses to smell their prey, and pointy ears to detect if any predator was near. Finding proper food would be very difficult, as sea otters tend to be quite picky. Certain plants such as moss and weeds could works, as well as large instincts, or small mammals like bunnies, but it would not give them the satisfaction they normally get.