Sea Otters Use Stone Anvils

One of those cute and entertaining creatures that frequently appears in viral videos and is spread about is the otter. Despite the fact that crossing an otter will result in a direct attempt on your life, people tend to adore them. Putting that aside, they are resourceful creatures in and of themselves who have proven capable of solve problems in the wild.

Due in large part to the fur trade, sea otters were once on the verge of extinction. They have been slowly making a comeback thanks to preservation efforts, and this has led to research on the animals' behaviors. What scientists have discovered as a result of the equipment the animals employed for hunting is a distinctive component of this.

Otters often do one of two methods to open the mussels they consume. They either utilize a stationary rock or grip it in their paws and wield it like a hammer to crack a mussel open on their breast as they float on their backs.

The immovable rock functions as an anvil. To crack open the mussel, the otter places it on the rock. There is a wealth of knowledge about how otters live as a result of research on otter hunting grounds. There are rocks that display signs of long-term anvil usage, such as thousands upon millions of discarded mussel shells. When it comes to carrying out these jobs, otters have a preferred paw, much like how a human will be left- or right-handed, according to the damage pattern on the shells and the observation of how otters use them.

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Carnivora
Family: Mustelidae
Subfamily: Lutrinae
Genus: Enhydra
Species: E. lutris