This is a video from the Toba Aquarium in Toba, Japan of sea otter May being helpful and returning the cones in her pool to a caretaker while they clean. The dexterity she has with her hands, it’s so…humanlike. The activity is actually part of an enrichment exercise to keep May stimulated. Some more info about sea otters, their decline, and how dense their fur is (it’ll blow your mind!):
the sea otter is the international ambassador species for otters, being the first to have been nearly hunted to extinction and saved in the nick of time. Unlike other marine mammals, they have no blubber to protect them from hypothermia. Instead, they have the thickest, densest fur of all mammals: 500,000 hairs per square centimeter! It was this feature that made its fur so desirable and nearly caused this otters’ demise.
Damn, 500,000 hairs per square centimeter?! That is some DENSE FUR. For reference, the mole on my shoulder only has four really big hairs coming out of it. Definitely not the sort of coat that’ll protect me from the cold. REAL TALK: Does it look like it’s getting bigger to you?
