Two very different uses of otters - in tracking digital-media change and dissecting a tough climate question; and an urgent call to action about AI misalignment.
Here's a fun emailed comment from water-focused writer Erica Gies:
Good stuff! When I was 7 I wanted to BE an otter when I grew up. I was a good swimmer, so I felt like I was well on my way. Alas, I seem to have stumbled before the finish line.
Have you been to the Amazon? In Guyana I saw giant river otters. They are 6 feet long with googly eyes and piercing warning shrieks that sound like a cross between screaming and nails on the chalkboard. Having grown up around sea otters, these biggies were quite another thing.
Some were orphaned and cared for by a bush camp until they were big enough to swim off with passing otter adults. They would run down to the river with us like dogs and were known by some locals as river dogs. People would catch fish for the little ones to feed them, and they'd hold them in their forepaws and gnaw. I pet one a couple of times while he was so engaged, and the second time he turned around and nipped me with teeth like razors. But didn't draw blood; it was a warning.
Around Victoria, we often have river otters living in families and playing along the shore, in salt water too. They are supercute, and I've seen them eating crabs as well and swimming in a hotel pool. Sea otters reintroduced to BC in the 1970s have finally made their way back down here, but I've not yet seen one here myself.
The next time you're in Monterey Bay I highly recommend a kayak or boat tour of Elkhorn Slough, which is in Moss Landing between Santa Cruz and Monterey. About 140 sea otters live there. Life is so good they don't bother going out into the ocean so you're almost guaranteed to see them.
Here's a fun emailed comment from water-focused writer Erica Gies:
Good stuff! When I was 7 I wanted to BE an otter when I grew up. I was a good swimmer, so I felt like I was well on my way. Alas, I seem to have stumbled before the finish line.
Have you been to the Amazon? In Guyana I saw giant river otters. They are 6 feet long with googly eyes and piercing warning shrieks that sound like a cross between screaming and nails on the chalkboard. Having grown up around sea otters, these biggies were quite another thing.
Some were orphaned and cared for by a bush camp until they were big enough to swim off with passing otter adults. They would run down to the river with us like dogs and were known by some locals as river dogs. People would catch fish for the little ones to feed them, and they'd hold them in their forepaws and gnaw. I pet one a couple of times while he was so engaged, and the second time he turned around and nipped me with teeth like razors. But didn't draw blood; it was a warning.
Around Victoria, we often have river otters living in families and playing along the shore, in salt water too. They are supercute, and I've seen them eating crabs as well and swimming in a hotel pool. Sea otters reintroduced to BC in the 1970s have finally made their way back down here, but I've not yet seen one here myself.
The next time you're in Monterey Bay I highly recommend a kayak or boat tour of Elkhorn Slough, which is in Moss Landing between Santa Cruz and Monterey. About 140 sea otters live there. Life is so good they don't bother going out into the ocean so you're almost guaranteed to see them.