Hope everyone is having a chill day. Apologies to comrade @BurningVIP who was scheduled to do the mega, but cannot be located at this time. Burning, you're welcome to take a future slot, or message me and I can update this thread with your mega topic. I hope you're doing ok, and just missed it because you're so dang relaxed.

Anyway, moving on, in the spirit of joy and relaxation, today's mega topic is otter facts!

  • Otters hold hands when they sleep!
  • Sea otters have the thickest fur of any animal. Their fur contains between 600,000 to 1,000,000 hair follicles per square inch. Unlike most other marine mammals, otters lack a blubber layer. Instead, they depend on their dense, water-resistant fur to provide insulation. To keep warm, sea otters spend a large portion of their days grooming and conditioning their fur. This traps air and heat next to their skin.
  • Sea otters eat 25 percent of their body weight in food every day. Sea otters’ diets include sea urchins, crabs, mussels, and clams, which they’re known to crack open with a rock and eat while floating in the water. To find food, sea otters may occasionally dive as deep as 250 feet and will use their sensitive whiskers to locate small prey inside crevices or their strong forepaws to dig for clams.
  • Sea otters can have a favorite rock and they'll keep their favorite rock in a pouch. They use the rocks as tools, and they are one of a very small number of animal species that are known to use tools.
  • Otters exhibit play behaviors, including juggling rocks for fun!
  • A group of resting otters is called a raft. Otters love to rest in groups. Researchers have seen concentrations of over 1,000 otters floating together. In addition to holding hands, to keep from drifting away from each other, sea otters will wrap themselves up in seaweed, forming something that resembles a raft.
  • Thirteen different species exist around the globe. River otters are much smaller — averaging 10-30 pounds — with a cylindrical body and small head. Sea otters weigh more — around 45-90 pounds — with large, furry faces.
  • 90% of the world's sea otters live in and around Alaska
  • Otters are polygamous, and mating seems to involve a lot of nose biting. We don't know why.
  • As with most wild animals, otter populations are threatened. Our animal comrades join us in wishing capitalism a speedy death.

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