Otters must be the cutest, sweetest-looking animals. 

Did you know that otters hold on to a rock for most of their lives? They save it in a little pocket that their skin makes and then take it out when they want to use it. They mostly use it to break things with it, like hard shells, or to play with it. That habit is insanely cute, but it’s also very functional. It’s as if we had some kind of toolbox attached to our bodies to take out whenever we need it. But the rock thing is not the only fun fact about otters that I want to share with you. 

Something really interesting about these little cute animals is that they may seem sweet and tiny, but they actually aren’t. They can grow up to 5.6 feet — that is almost my height! And they normally eat about a quarter of their body weight EVERY DAY. Yes, they eat like crazy. They also have an insanely big lung capacity when compared to other mammals of around the same size, which makes you think twice before entering a breathing underwater competition against them. But there are some facts about them that aren’t as fun.

I don’t know if you have seen the movie Zootopia, but if you have, you may remember that even though these animals look really cute, they are predators. Emmitt Otterton ended up being a kind otter who was just under the effect of a night-howler serum that had the properties to make him act deranged and dangerous. But in real life, otters aren’t as nice as they seem. They have very strong teeth and a powerful bite, which makes it not super safe to be around them. It’s fine to be in the same area, but it’s not safe to get too close to them. You need to maintain your distance. 

It’s important to widen our horizons and learn a lot more about the animals with which we share the Earth. We may not live in Alaska or near their natural habitats, but that doesn’t mean that we are allowed to be ignorant about them. Otters are of utter importance to the ecosystem, as they help control the sea urchin population. If there are fewer of them, it prevents kelp forests from being overconsumed in excess. They are key to the ecosystem, and to prevent damage to the Earth, we need them, and they need people to be more interested in them as a way to maintain them and keep them safe. So maybe these memes and fun facts are your first approach to this species, and that’s perfectly fine. But I would really suggest that you enter the rabbit hole on this topic. It is important to know our animals, to learn about the planet, and to be mindful of it to always keep it the best way we can. After all, if we don’t take care of the place we live in, no one else will. So start this journey and learn about animals.