An orphaned baby sea otter rescued off the California coast has melted hearts after bonding almost instantly with a surrogate “mom” who now won’t leave her side.
The tiny southern sea otter pup, named Sunny, was found completely alone near Asilomar State Beach when she was only about two-and-a-half weeks old.
Now, the rescued pup has a second chance thanks to Aquarium of the Pacific and a caring adult otter named Rey.
The aquarium announced that 16-week-old Sunny has officially bonded with Rey, a 2-year-old female sea otter who recently joined the facility through the Monterey Bay Aquarium sea otter surrogacy program.
And according to aquarium staff, the connection between the two happened almost immediately.
“Within moments of putting the two sea otters together, Rey went over and started interacting with and engaging with the pup,” Brett Long, senior vice president of animal care at the Aquarium of the Pacific, said. “She almost immediately started to try to tow it around and act as if she was being a good mom sea otter.”
Photos of the pair cuddling, floating together, and learning side-by-side have quickly captured attention online.
Sunny was originally rescued after being discovered without her mother along the California coastline. She first received emergency care and stabilization at Monterey Bay Aquarium before the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service determined she could not safely return to the wild.
That made Sunny the perfect candidate for a special surrogacy program designed to help orphaned sea otters learn critical survival skills from older otters.
Rey arrived at the Long Beach aquarium earlier this year after previously living at SeaWorld San Diego, where staff noticed she displayed strong social instincts around other otters.
Those motherly instincts are now paying off in a big way.
About a week and a half ago, the adorable pair officially moved into the aquarium’s main sea otter habitat, where visitors can now watch them interact in person.
“It gave Rey an opportunity to be a lovely protective surrogate mom and try to introduce the pup to fish for the first time,” Long explained.
Since arriving at the aquarium, Sunny has grown from around 12 pounds to nearly 15 pounds while learning important behaviors like grooming, floating, and foraging for food.
Experts say sea otters rely heavily on their mothers in the wild because pups must actually be taught how to survive.
“Sea otters are a little different than some marine mammal species in that they have to be taught how to take care of themselves, taught how to groom, taught how to forage, and taught how to act like an otter,” Long explained.
The Aquarium of the Pacific joined the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s sea otter surrogacy program in 2020 and has already helped rehabilitate multiple orphaned pups for release back into the wild.
Even though Sunny herself cannot be released, researchers hope she could someday become a surrogate mom too.
“The goal with Sunny long-term is that because she’s being raised by a female sea otter, when she gets to be three or four years old, she’ll also be a surrogate mom within these programs,” Long shared.