From the Monterey Harbor to the nearby coasts, sea otters are frolicking offshore. Apart from the harbors, a good spot to see them in their environment is the “Point Lobos State Park”. There, I observed a very peculiar behavior of one otter who hopped onto a tiny island and robbed to a dark brown thing, sniffed it, turned around and splashed back into the water. Inspecting the pictures taken with my telelens, I could see that the thing the otter was sniffing was a dead otter. I reported this to one of the rangers in the state park and he says: “Oh, it was probably just sleeping”. I mean, who would NOT have thought of the Dead Parrot in Monty Python?! I was fighting very hard with myself not to reply: “This otter is an ex-otter. It has ceased to be. This otter is no more, it has gone to meet its maker. It is pushing up the daisies!” (For those of you who are unfamiliar with the absolutely hilarious dead parrot sketch click here) End of story is that he finally believed me when I showed him the pictures and he called it in right away, so they could get the ex-otter for necropsy to determine cause of death which helps researchers to find out why otter populations are struggling to maintain their numbers. Please note: All animals shown in picture are very much alive.
That’s the way rangers are… 😉 I remember the days when dozens of visitors were anxious to tell us about the dead young snowy owls. “They’re just sleeping” we assured them very friendly, getting fed up with their ignorance. Until the day when visitors informed us about the dozens of flies bustling about a “sleeping” snowy owl. That day, it was indeed a late snowy owl…! Thanks for the link to the dead parrot sketch – I will definitely remember it next time in the park…!
I have to admit it was very moving when the Sea Otter went up the rock to visit his companion (which was not moving), then turned around and jumped back into the ocean.
Those Sea Otters are very “schnueggelig” and my favored. Suzanne