Want to Watch Monterey Bay Aquarium's Surrogacy Program in Action?

We’ve written a lot here about Monterey Bay Aquarium’s surrogacy program, in which rescued abandoned or orphaned sea otter pups are rescued are paired with an adult female sea otter at the aquarium, who teaches the young pup everything his or her mother would have in the wild. The goal is to release the pup back to the wild when he or she is ready. Usually this surrogacy work happens behind the scenes at the aquarium, but since the facility is still closed to the public, Monterey Bay Aquarium is giving you a remote peek behind the scenes via their live cam! They write:

Usually, our guests can’t see the wild sea otters in our care. We keep them behind the scenes so they don’t get comfortable around humans. But with the Aquarium temporarily closed to the public, we have the exciting opportunity to give two young rescued otters access to a deeper, more complex living space.

Over the next few weeks, two pups will explore and dive in the sea otter exhibit with Selka and Kit, two of our resident otters who adopted the pups and are teaching them survival skills for their release into the wild.

The live cam is on from 7:00 am to 7:00 pm Pacific time, but tune in on weekdays at 1:30 pm Pacific for a chat with naturalists about the program!

Photo via Monterey Bay Aquarium