Monterey Bay Aquarium Welcomes Sea Otter Ruby!

Six-year-old sea otter Ruby is returning to California to join Monterey Bay Aquarium’s raft of sea otters! The aquarium writes:

We found Ruby, also known as otter 714, stranded near San Simeon as a newborn pup in September of 2015. At 1.9 pounds (0.86 kg), she was one of the smallest sea otters we've ever rehabilitated. Noticing her small size and fresh belly button, our Animal Care team suspected she may have been born prematurely and rescued her that same day. Ruby grew up in our surrogacy program, raised by our former exhibit sea otter Gidget. The young otter was eventually released into Elkhorn Slough. Despite several attempts for her to live on her own, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials deemed her non-releasable due to her dependency on receiving food from humans.  

In March 2017, she was offered a home at the Aquarium of the Americas in New Orleans. She served as an ambassador for her species and companion for Clara, their eight-year-old exhibit otter. More than 3,000 people voted to help name her Ruby after her favorite toy, a bright red ball. In July 2022, Ruby returned to California and joined our raft of resident otters. Our Sea Otter team is going to be working with Ruby to see if she could become a potential surrogate sea otter mom.

Welcome, Ruby!