#roughage

Sea Otters are endangered marine mammals and are the only marine mammals without a blubber layer. Due to their unique personalities, they are very popular animals to exhibit in zoos and aquariums. Providing otters with a good diet is a priority to keep them healthy and energetic for visitors to see. They feed on a variety of prey, often preferring clams, crab, sea urchin, and abalones.  Developing a diet plan involves observing wild sea otters and the functional anatomy of their digestive tract, dental morphology, and the effects that foraging and diet have on social behavior. 

A voluntary survey of otter diets was sent out to 26 institutions, gaining 24 responses. This gave data on 65 otters: 40 females and 25 males. Their regular diets and enrichment totalled 58 species of bony fish and macroinvertebrates. Of the 24 institutions that responded, 87% provide roughage (shells and bones) for enrichment. It has proven to be quite a challenge for zoos to provide sea otters with diets that closely replicate what they eat in the wild. Most of their food in captivity is commercially caught and purchased. The dominant food fed to captive otters is bony fish, which is only eaten seasonally in the wild, and captive diets lack the sea urchin which wild otters enjoy eating, with only 4% of institutions even using it for enrichment. These institutions fed the sea otters 18% of their body weight on average, while wild otters need to eat 25% of their body weight because they need more energy every day for foraging dives, swimming, and grooming. 

Though they look cute and cuddly enough to be great pets, sea otters are actually pretty hard to take care of. This study proves that there’s really a lot more than meets the eye when it comes to care of zoo animals, even if they do look like a cross between a puppy and a teddy bear.

Nutrition Tidbit #3: Fiber

What is fiber?  Why do I need it?  How can I add it to my diet?  Read more of this article to find out everything you want or need to know about fiber. Fiber: Why Do We Need It? What Foods Are Rich In Fiber? Fiber is the performer otherwise known as roughage. Simply put it is the parts of foods that you cannot and do not digest and absorb.  Fiber is mostly from the indigestible part of plant…

Nutrition Tidbit #3: Fiber

What is fiber?  Why do I need it?  How can I add it to my diet?  Read more of this article to find out everything you want or need to know about fiber. Fiber: Why Do We Need It? What Foods Are Rich In Fiber? Fiber is the performer otherwise known as roughage. Simply put it is the parts of foods that you cannot and do not digest and absorb.  Fiber is mostly from the indigestible part of plant…