OTTER-LY GORGEOUS! SWEET SNAPS SHOW MOTHER AND PUP CUDDLING IN HARBOUR
A nature photographer has captutred adorable images of a sea otter and her pup cuddling as they float.
The sweet snaps, which were taken by Suzi Eszterhas, show the mother sea otter lifting her pup onto her belly in Monterey Bay, California, in an attempt to keep her baby dry.
According to Eszerthas, the mother had just 'fiercely' fought off a male who was looking to mate with her and she had then grabbed her pup in her arms to swim away.
The photographer managed to capture the images from a boat with a telephoto lens.
The marine animals live across approximately 600 miles of California's coastline and they play a crucial role in maintaining the structural integrity of marshy banks and preserving biodiversity.
By the 1920s, sea otters were nearly wiped out by centuries of industrial-scale hunting for their fur pelts, decimating a global population that once stretched from Alaska to California, as well as into Russia and Japan.
Recent hunting bans and habitat restoration efforts have helped southern sea otters recover some of their former range.
There are currently around 3,000 southern sea otters located in the California region.
Read more 2026-02-27T00:57:28Z