The Monterey Bay Aquariuim’s Sea Otter Surrogacy Program pairs a rescued otter pup with one of the aquarium’s resident adult female otters, who raises the pup like her own. (Doug Duran/Bay Area News Group)
MONTEREY — Behind the towering glass walls and shimmering cerulean exhibits at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, a sea otter named Selka paddles around an above-ground pool, a fluffy pup clutched to her chest. With unquestionable maternal diligence, she grooms, snuggles and shares food with this little one, despite the fact that it isn’t her baby. Selka has taken on the role of adoptive mother to the young otter that had been separated from its mother in the wild and was too young to fend for itself.
Selka is one of several participants in the aquarium’s long-running, first-of-its-kind surrogacy program. It pairs a rescued otter pup with one of the aquarium’s resident adult female otters, who raises the pup like her own and teaches it how to be an otter. Over the past two decades, the aquarium has successfully released over 75 otters that had been orphaned or abandoned as pups, but were well-prepared for life in the wild by their adoptive mothers. Selka herself was raised by a surrogate mother at the aquarium in 2012, after being rescued at just one week old…