Tag Archives | otters

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Mystery of the Red Tide

I stood with my feet buried in sand, staring at the ocean waves as they touched the beach. It was mid-October. To my untrained eye, the Monterey Bay shoreline looked like a child’s bubble bath. To California Fish and Wildlife scientists, it was a terrible déjà vu. Nine years ago, an algal bloom wreaked havoc—and…

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Mom may look like she's taking a break, but she's not. Photo courtesy of Mike Baird <www.flickr.com/photos/mikebaird/4301804307/in/photostream/> at flickr.bairdphotos.com via Flickr, Creative Commons License.

Tough life for otter moms

Parenthood is both a universal and deeply personal experience. With my science background, I’m always contrasting what I understand as a biologist and what I feel as a mother. Sometimes the latest evolutionary/genetic/cognitive behavioral/comparative biology discovery reinforces my experiences (for example positive benefits of co-sleeping.) Other times it jars me out of a prejudice I…

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River otters are making a strong comeback in Bay Area waters. Photo credit: Paola Bouley, River Otter Ecology Project

Call it a comeback

I looked up from fawning over some orange California newts just in time to spy a fuzzy whiskered face peering out from the waters of the creek. Weasel-like features and silky-smooth contours gave away the creature’s identity: Lontra Canadensis, the North American river otter. As soon as we made eye contact, she flipped her body…

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Otter things have happened, it’s a big universe

Nads is on a roll and I thought I’d share a set of my own loose associations triggered after my facebook status update netted a comment by an astronomer. My original caption: “See, otters. OR It otter be illegal to kayak near otters. Oh wait, it is; 50 meter restraining order on all Homo sapiens.”…

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