Adorable, yes, but these two have a serious future as adoptive sea otter moms

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An orphaned sea otter pup and a young adult female have found each other and a new home in Southern California.Neither will live in the wild again.But aquarium officials in Long Beach have a future in mind for the pair.Rey and the pup, Sunny, are making their public debut Wednesday at the Aquarium of the Pacific, where they are on view in the Sea Otter Habitat inside the Northern Pacific Gallery.Both otters were deemed non-releasable to the wild by the U.S.

Fish and Wildlife Service because they had not participated in the aquarium’s sea otter surrogacy program, but officials envision a role for them in that very program.They see Rey and Sunny as future stand-in moms.Stranded baby sea otters need a mother figure if they’re ever going to be able to return to the ocean.

The Aquarium of the Pacific is part of Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Sea Otter Surrogacy program, where the aquarium’s adult female sea otters act as adoptive mothers to teach rescued pups the skills needed to survive in the wild, according to the aquarium.“Our hope is that once they reach the age of maturity, both otters will become surrogate mothers, so that more orphaned pups have the chance to return to the ocean,” said Megan Smylie, the aquarium’s sea otter program manager.When a pup strands on the Central California coast, federal and state wildlife officials respond to assess whether it is truly orphaned, said Brett Long, the Long Beach aquarium’s vice president of animal care.The otter will then go to the Monterey Bay Aquarium for up to eight weeks of critical care.

Once stable, the pup may be transferred to the Aquarium of the Pacific, where it is paired with an adult female surrogate for about five months.The surrogate teaches the pup to groom, forage, and behave like a wild otter, Long said.Rey and Sunny were paired together to help Rey train to be a surrogate mother and young Sunny to pick ...