Orphaned sea otter forms mother-daughter bond in aquarium’s surrogacy program
An orphaned southern sea otter named Sunny has been paired with surrogate mother Rey at the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, California, as part of a surrogacy program run with the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Though neither otter can be released into the wild due to human habituation, Rey is teaching Sunny essential survival behaviors in captivity. The program aims to support the recovery of the threatened southern sea otter population through rehabilitation and surrogate rearing.
- ▪Sunny, a two-week-old orphaned otter, was found on Asilomar State Beach and paired with Rey at the Aquarium of the Pacific.
- ▪The surrogacy program, originally created by the Monterey Bay Aquarium in the 1990s, was launched at the Aquarium of the Pacific in 2024.
- ▪Nine otters have been rehabilitated and released into the wild through the program, with three more expected to be released by summer.
- ▪Rey, who was stranded in 2023, cannot survive in the wild and is raising Sunny in captivity as her first pup.
- ▪Southern sea otters are a federally threatened species with a current population of about 3,000 along California’s Central Coast.
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Open this photo in gallery:Sunny, the southern sea otter, looks up while being cuddled by surrogate mother Rey as the two make their first appearance at the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, Calif., on Wednesday.Thomas R. Cordova/The Long Beach Post via The Associated PressShareSave for laterPlease log in to bookmark this story.Log InCreate Free AccountBefore last month, a young southern sea otter named Rey would never have imagined she’d be a mother.That changed when she met Sunny, a pup – about two weeks old – found orphaned and alone on Asilomar State Beach in February. The pairing went off without a hitch.The two otters now live as mother and daughter at the Aquarium of the Pacific.
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