Vancouver Aquarium sea otters, Nyac and Milo, have become the latest stars on YouTube!
A video showing the otters holding paws, a natural behaviour called "rafting", appeared on the Internet in March 2007. It has now been viewed about 8 million times by people all over the world. Aquarium visitor Cynthia Holmes, who was then a PhD student at the University of British Columbia, shot the video in 2002.
The tremendous response to Ms. Holmes's video on YouTube is a testament to the allure of sea otters. And that's good since they are a threatened species and need our help. Oil spills are one of the greatest threats to sea otters. Nyac, the blond, female otter in the video is a rare survivor of the 1989 Exxon Valdez Oil Spill.
We hope that people watching this video will be inspired to take action - by choosing to drive a fuel-efficient car, for example - to help protect these animals for our grandchildren.
If you would like to get to know the otters better, you can book a Sea Otter Trainer Tour, where visitors go behind the scenes to learn about and feed the otters.
We also offer the opportunity to "adopt" an otter through our Aquadopt program.
