Quick Take
Otter 841 and her pup are still in Monterey Bay waters and will remain there for the foreseeable future, as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has no plans to restart its efforts to capture the feisty marine mammal.
Santa Cruz’s beloved Otter 841 became arguably the world’s most famous otter last summer when she was photographed biting and stealing surfboards and then outwitted the state and federal authorities who were trying to capture her.
Nearly six months since she first gained international fame, Santa Cruz’s viral otter remains in the wild, riding waves and now mothering her pup, which she gave birth to in October. After the birth, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) suspended its efforts to capture the surfboard-stealing otter, and has not since restarted them.
FWS spokesperson Ashley McConnell told Lookout that biologists will continue to monitor Otter 841 and assess her behavior, but, as with this fall, are not currently planning to attempt capture.
The agency said that 841’s pregnancy could have been the cause of her unusual bold behavior. Hormonal surges related to pregnancy have been observed to cause aggressive behavior in female Southern sea otters, FWS explained in a news release.
Otters require a lot of energy to adequately feed and care for their pups, and adults need to eat up to 30% of their body mass in food every day to meet their energy requirements. When otters are caring for a pup, it is as important as ever to allow the animals space and safety to give both mother and baby the best chance of survival.
Local photographer Mark Woodward, who goes by Native Santa Cruz on social media, saw a similar surge in popularity. Woodward has seen 841 and her pup — which he now refers to as “841 + 1” — swimming together in recent weeks, and has observed 841 teaching her pup how to dive, as baby sea otters cannot actually swim or dive right away.
“I see them both go under for a while and come back up with food,” he said. “It’s really cool watching the pup grow up so fast.”
And Woodward continues to document local coast life. Just last week, he made the rounds throughout the county, snapping pics of the huge wave swells that battered and flooded coastal areas: “Again, my social media blew up big time!”
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