Clever otter enjoys surf at California beach — on boards it stole. See adorable moment
A clever sea otter was spotted hanging out with surfers at a popular surfing spot in California — and it even used its favorite board to catch a wave, photos show.
Mark Woodward, the photographer behind the Native Santa Cruz Twitter account, posted a series of photos he snapped of the surfing sea otter at Cowell’s Beach during a surfing event on June 18.
Photos show the otter swimming around the surfers, testing their boards with its teeth and paws, and climbing on top of a blue board to catch a wave.
“This otter checked out several boards before settling on the blue one as [its] ride,” Woodward said on Twitter. “At one point, it was chasing the board as the surfer was heading in. It attracted quite a crowd of onlookers up on West Cliff.”
Woodward believes it might be the same otter that was seen surfing on a blue surfboard at the same spot in September. Several people shared news stories about that otter in the comments of his post.
“Both were blue boards and the one yesterday also chased after the board,” Woodward said.
The otter spotted surfing in September is a female who was born in captivity, Bay Nature reported at the time.
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife has kept an eye on the otter and even tried to relocate her for her safety — but failed, the outlet reported.
However, the department has had success hazing the otter to try to curb the unusual behavior, according to Colleen Young, an environmental scientist with the state department of fish and wildlife.
State biologists don’t know why she started interacting with humans. Outside of her surfing habit, her other behaviors and body condition appeared normal, and the biologists often observe her steering clear of humans, Young told McClatchy News.
Somewhere along the way she must have picked up a positive association with humans or their surfboards, Young said. Because it’s challenging to understand the behavior, it’s even more important for people to do their part in discouraging the behavior by avoiding interactions and ignoring her, paddling away from her, and slapping the water to scare her off.
“It’s hard because people think the behavior is cute, but it can escalate into a dangerous situation for both the animal and the humans pretty quickly,” she said. “It’s hard for us to change the animal’s behavior. It’s the people around her that are going to make the difference for her. Not offering her a board can go a long way.”
Department biologists are working with partners at the Marine Mammal Center and the Monterey Bay Aquarium on wildlife conflicts. They ask people to report incidents like this one to the aquarium’s 24-hour hotline at 831-648-4840.
On Instagram, someone who said they’re a local marine scientist said they reported the incident to the sea otter biologist at the agency.
Some wondered if a shark might have been lurking beneath the surface, causing the otter and a couple of sea lions to swim among the pack of surfers.
While it’s rare to see an otter interact with humans that much, Woodward said it “seemed calm and friendly” while swimming just a few feet from surfers and going from board to board.
“Yikes. You are supposed to stay 50 feet away from an otter,” someone pointed out on Twitter.
While true, Woodward said “the otter wasn’t aware of that and was the one going to the surfers.”
“It’s common for otters to get next [to] surfers, I’ve seen it a lot, but this is the first time I’ve seen them get on boards,” he said.
This story was originally published June 21, 2023 at 10:04 AM.
