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Animal Age

How old does a Sea otter get? (age expectancy)

What is the maximal age a Sea otter reaches?

An adult Sea otter (Enhydra lutris) usually gets as old as 30 years.

Sea otters are around 238 days in the womb of their mother. When born, they weight 1.89 kg (4.17 lbs) and measure 62.1 cm (2′ 1″). As a member of the Mustelidae family (genus: Enhydra), their offspring is 1 babies per pregnancy. Fully grown, they reach a bodylength of 1.44 meter (4′ 9″).

As a reference: Usually, humans get as old as 100 years, with the average being around 75 years. After being carried in the belly of their mother for 280 days (40 weeks), they grow to an average size of 1.65m (5′ 5″) and weight in at 62 kg (137 lbs), which is obviously highly individual.

A Sea otter gets as old as 30 years

The sea otter (Enhydra lutris) is a marine mammal native to the coasts of the northern and eastern North Pacific Ocean. Adult sea otters typically weigh between 14 and 45 kg (31 and 99 lb), making them the heaviest members of the weasel family, but among the smallest marine mammals. Unlike most marine mammals, the sea otter’s primary form of insulation is an exceptionally thick coat of fur, the densest in the animal kingdom. Although it can walk on land, the sea otter is capable of living exclusively in the ocean.The sea otter inhabits nearshore environments, where it dives to the sea floor to forage. It preys mostly on marine invertebrates such as sea urchins, various molluscs and crustaceans, and some species of fish. Its foraging and eating habits are noteworthy in several respects. First, its use of rocks to dislodge prey and to open shells makes it one of the few mammal species to use tools. In most of its range, it is a keystone species, controlling sea urchin populations which would otherwise inflict extensive damage to kelp forest ecosystems. Its diet includes prey species that are also valued by humans as food, leading to conflicts between sea otters and fisheries.Sea otters, whose numbers were once estimated at 150,000–300,000, were hunted extensively for their fur between 1741 and 1911, and the world population fell to 1,000–2,000 individuals living in a fraction of their historic range. A subsequent international ban on hunting, sea otter conservation efforts, and reintroduction programs into previously populated areas have contributed to numbers rebounding, and the species occupies about two-thirds of its former range. The recovery of the sea otter is considered an important success in marine conservation, although populations in the Aleutian Islands and California have recently declined or have plateaued at depressed levels. For these reasons, the sea otter remains classified as an endangered species.

Animals of the same family as a Sea otter

Not really brothers and sisters, but from the same biological family (Mustelidae):

Animals that reach the same age as Sea otter

With an average age of 30 years, Sea otter are in good companionship of the following animals:

Animals with the same number of babies Sea otter

The same number of babies at once (1) are born by:

Weighting as much as Sea otter

A fully grown Sea otter reaches around 27.46 kg (60.53 lbs). So do these animals:

Animals as big as a Sea otter

Those animals grow as big as a Sea otter: