Sea Otter Love

This is a bit of a bittersweet post. We love to see acts of kindness in the world, and the animal world is no exception.
Below, you'll read the story of Toola, an otter who raised orphaned otter pups. She died recently. Her story, although sad, is inspiring because it shows the capacity for love and compassion in our animal friends. It's a great reminder that humans can be kind and compassionate too.

Today, Toola's acts of kindness are blue, for the water that she loved.

Toola, An Otter Pioneer Who Raised Orphan Pups, Has Died

Categories: Nature, National News 

by EYDER PERALTA

Randy Wilder/Monterey Bay Aquarium

Toola, the southern sea otter, with a surrogate pup.

Toola may not be a household name, but she made quite an impression on the staff of the Monterey Bay Aquarium, where she lived most of her adult life.

Just look at how Dr. Mike Murray, an aquarium veterinarian, described the sea otter:

"I will argue that there is no other single sea otter that had a greater impact upon the sea otter species, the sea otter programs worldwide, and upon the interface between the sea otters' scientific community and the public."

Toola was the first captive otter to ever serve as a surrogate mother. And that changed the way researchers rehabilitated injured otters. In the past, otters could not be released to the wild because they had grown too accustomed to interactions with humans. Toola changed all that and she also inspired legislation that created the California Sea Otter Fund, which supports research into "disease and other threats facing sea otters in the wild."

Toola died early Saturday morning. She was thought to be 15 or 16 years old.

The Monterey Bay Aquarium says Toola was rescued when she was about 5 years old. She was found pregnant and stranded on a beach, suffering from a neurological disorder caused by a parasite that is spread by cat feces.

The San Francisco Chronicle reports that shortly after her rescue, Toola gave birth to a stillborn pup. But at the same time, the aquarium received a pup that was only two weeks old and that's when "Toola's motherhood miracle happened."

The Chronicle reports:

"Toola didn't hesitate. She nursed the orphaned pup like he was her own, taught him to open clamshells with rocks, how to eat a crab without getting pinched, and other tricks of sea otter life.

"That pup, raised by Toola instead of humans, was able to return to the Pacific, where he's now king of a pack at Elkhorn Slough and has fathered countless pups himself."

"Toola was without question the most important animal in the history of our program," Andrew Johnson, manager of the Aquarium's Sea Otter Research and Conservation program, said in a statement. "She showed us that captive otters could successfully raise orphaned pups for return to the wild. She inspired a critical piece of legislation that is helping protect sea otters. And she inspired millions of visitors to care more about sea otters. We will miss her."

Toola could never be released into the wild herself, because she required twice-daily medication to control her convulsions. But she raised 13 pups over the years, 11 of which have been released to the wild.

The San Jose Mercury News reports that her keepers first noticed something was wrong on Wednesday, and by Thursday blood work showed a problem with her kidneys. When vets treated her, "she appeared to bounce back." The staff said Toola cared for her last pup until Friday. The staff left her on Saturday at 2:45 a.m. thinking she was stable, but when they came back at 6 a.m., she had passed.

"Toola did what she has always done. She went out her way on her terms, and I believe died with dignity," Murray told theMercury News. "May we all be blessed to go out the same way."

article source: NPR

Colorful Kebabs

Image from Youth Radio Eats!!

Getting kids to eat their vegetables is no easy task. Sometimes, no matter how hard you focus on making sure your child has all the right foods at their fingertips, he or she will simply refuse to eat them. Kanger Leenee loves color and wants your child to be excited about eating as much color as possible!


Here's a quick tip to keep your little one focused on the colors rather than the fact that his or her food might be healthy, too:


Make kebabs out of the food in front of them. Rather than trying to get your child to eat a sandwich, cut the ingredients into cubes and place them in several small bowls on the table. Let your child make his or her own kebab out of the ingredients. Have them try to make the most colorful kebab they can!


Suggestions: use pineapples, strawberries, apples, cucumbers, cheese cubes, bits of bread, lettuce, tomato, green peppers, meats. You can use whatever your child finds appetizing and whatever you find easy to cut and clean up! As they get older, you might want to include dipping sauces for added splashes of color and flavor.

A Purple Squirrel?

We found this article about a purple squirrel from Pennsylvania and wanted to share it with you.

You've seen  brightly colored animals in children's books but probably never in daily life. Your child or children will probably love the idea of a purple squirrel - this is the perfect chance to have them imagine where he might have come from, how he came to be purple, or what he might enjoy doing. Do purple squirrels have more fun than regular squirrels? 

Kanger Leenee certainly thinks that a purple squirrel is an interesting addition to our colorful world!

Pennsylvania’s purple squirrel a rainbow-colored riddle

Published February 10, 2012

FoxNews.com

• 
  Accuweather.com
  
  

A bright purple squirrel trapped by a Pennsylvania couple has experts offering all sorts of theories -- but no concrete answers.

Percy and Connie Emert from Jersey Shore, Pa., trapped the brightly colored creature while trying to keep the birds safe in their backyard feeder, reported Accuweather.com. They told the weather service they had no explanation for the rodent’s deep purple color.

"We have no idea whatsoever. It's really purple. People think we dyed it, but honestly, we just found it and it was purple," the Emerts told Accuweather.

Experts queried by Accuweather had several theories for the unusual look, but no hard answers. Indeed, Krish Pillai, a professor at Lock Haven University of Pennsylvania, told Accuweather he thought the coloring was dangerous for the animal.

I’ve got to think one of the suggestions might be it fell in a Porta John that had blue coloration.

- Henry Kacprzyk, Pittsburgh Zoo curator

"This is not good at all. That color looks very much like Tyrian purple. It is a natural organobromide compound seen in molluscs and rarely found in land animals. The squirrel (possibly) has too much bromide in its system," he said.

Some AccuWeather.com meteorologists had their own theories. Expert Senior Meteorologist Henry Margusity thought it was merely an accident.

"The squirrel could have been looking for somewhere warm and fallen into a port-a-potty or something similar," he said,

Henry Kacprzyk, a curator at the Pittsburgh Zoo, said Thursday he thought it looked like a gray squirrel tinged in purple, after looking at a picture of the critter on an iPhone.

He knows of albino squirrels. Black squirrels. Gray squirrels. Reddish squirrels.

“But the purple coloration, from the purple I saw … it looked to me like this animal had come in contact with something with its fur and dyed its fur,” Kacprzyk said. The squirrel could have come in contact with a pokeberry patch, but pokeberries aren’t in season.

And strange as it sounds, he thought Margusity’s toilet theory might hold water.

“I’ve got to think one of the suggestions might be it fell in a Porta John that had blue coloration,” he said with a chuckle. “I have no idea why … but I don’t think it was born that way.”

When asked about the suggestions by some people in online forums of the potential impact of fracking fluid, Kacprzyk said the composition of such fluids in Pennsylvania wasn’t known. “My guess there is if you don’t know something, is that there’s no scientific proof to that. … I would find it amazing that it had that kind of effect,” he said.

In general, purple is an unusual color for mammals, let alone squirrels.

“There are definitely birds that have coloration like this … but not mammals,” he said. “Mammals don’t normally uptake color, ingest something it goes through and (then) it comes out through their fur.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source: www.foxnews.com