SEA OTTERS/ POLAR BEARS

OTTER ANATOMY

• Have two coats
• Stubby webbed feet
• Great senses like smell and sense of vibration
• 100 pounds

OTTER BEHAVIOR

• Fun loving animals
• Very active during the day
• Only sleep at night or on hot days

OTTER REPRODUCTION

• Mate during spring time
• Males usually aggressive
• 5 times more females than males
• Communicate vocally during mating

OTTER HABITS

• Sea otters wrap themselves in seaweed while sleeping.
• Keeps them from drifting away
• Also hold each others hands

OTTER ECOLOGY

• Eat clams, crabs, snails, sea stars, urchins, and albacore
• Use rocks to crack open shell of prey.
• Collect the good rocks to use for other prey.
• Located mainly in Pacific Ocean

OTTER FEATURES

• A long slick coat on the top
• A short coat to keep them dry under the 1st coat
• Long muscular tails for swimming

OTTER NATURAL HISTORY

• Enhydra lutris kenyoni - northern sea otter
• Enhydra lutris lutris - common sea otter
• Enhydra lutris nereis - southern sea otter
• 23 million years old

POLAR BEAR ANATOMY

• Males up to 1,500 pounds, females up to 800.
• Great swimmers
• Sense prey up to a mile a way.
• Keen eye sight and hearing
• Layers of blubber
• Black skin, white coat.

POLAR BEAR BEHAVIOR

• Usually lonely creatures
• Don't always travel in groups
• Males create strong bonds with other males
• Either love playing with others or are indifferent

POLAR BEAR REPRODUCTION

• Males compete aggressively for the female
• Females attracted to furriest legs

POLAR BEAR HABITS

• Keep themselves clean
• Mainly hunt for food

POLAR BEAR ECOLOGY

• Eat seals, walruses, fish, deer, and some rodents
• Can resort to cannibalism
• Sometimes could eat whales.
• Arctic creatures

POLAR BEAR FEATURES

• Traction pads on their paws.
• Layers of blubber
• Large teeth, small claws
• Black skin, transparent coat

POLAR BEAR NATURAL HISTORY

• Evolved from the brown bear 38 million years ago
• Ursus maritimus
• Family: Ursidae

BIBLIOGRAPHY

• http://www.polarbear-world.com/facts-about-polar-bears/
• http://www.otter-world.com/otter-information/
• http://marinebio.org/species.asp?id=157
• Kruuk, Hans. "Otters." The Encyclopedia of Mammals. : Oxford University Press, 2006. Oxford Reference. 2007. Date Accessed 6 May. 2015 .