The comeback cubs

摘要

It's shortly after dawn on Canada's west coast. We're standing on a rocky islet, and below us are the animals we have come to watch: about 15 sea otters are grooming, snacking and snoozing in the ocean. Then four fishing skiffs zoom by and the otters scatter. I'm here with marine ecologist Erin Rechsteiner, who has been watching sea otters at this particular spot since they first arrived in autumn 2013. The raft of males, numbering up to 130 animals in winter and spring, is a sea otter vanguard. "We're right on the edge of their range, for the moment," Rechsteiner says. When the males turned up, they feasted on sea urchins. "We're watching them shift to different foods now that they've been here for a few months. It would be like if you arrive in town where no one else is around and you raid the candy store, and once the candy is hard to find you raid the vegetable garden next."