Sea Otters Like It Rough

One of the perks of living on the central California coast is the proximity to sea otters, which are widely known to be some of the best mammals in existence. They are plentiful in some areas, and are generally unwary of people. Flycatcher Jen and I ran into a pair that happened to be mating a few weeks ago down at Moss Landing, and despite the low light I managed to crush them pretty hard.

The male otter was clamped on to the nose of the female much of the time, and generally tried to keep her underwater. This is par for the course when it comes to otter sex, its typically a pretty gnarly affair. Older females can often be identified from the scars on their nose left by sexual encounters.

There it is, a humungo sea otter penis, aka the Otter Rocket.

The otters got along just fine post-coitus, although they looked a bit embarrassed to know that people had been watching them do the nasty from a few feet away.

This otter had better teeth than most people I know.

Mussels were the food of choice after their hardcore sexual showdown. They managed to split the mussels easily and neatly, not even bashing them against a rock like they do with many of their prey items.

Sea otters are absurdly cute creatures.