Wikipedia:Today's featured article/March 24, 2008



The sea otter is a marine mammal native to the coasts of the northern and eastern North Pacific Ocean. Its many unusual characteristics include the use of rocks as tools to forage and to open shells, luxurious fur that is the densest of all animals with up to 150,000 hairs per cm2 (nearly 1 million per sq in), and its role as a keystone species, controlling populations of marine herbivores which would otherwise inflict extensive damage to kelp forest ecosystems. Although the sea otter belongs to the weasel family and can walk on land, it can also live exclusively in the ocean. Once hunted to the brink of extinction for its fur, the sea otter's numbers have rebounded in about two-thirds of its historic range, a recovery that is considered one of the greatest successes in marine conservation. However, it remains classified as an endangered species and is highly vulnerable to oil spills. (more...)

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