A Golden Girl: 14-Year-Old Sea Otter Finds Home at the Detroit Zoo

By Sarah Culton, communications manager

As the sun beats down on a blisteringly hot Michigan summer day, the Detroit Zoo’s newest resident is nothing but cool as she splashes around her new, perfectly chilled aquatic habitat.

The Zoo recently welcomed Kit, a 14-year-old southern sea otter, to the raft that calls the Arctic Ring of Life home. After arriving in early June, Kit has settled in swimmingly to her new home, making fast friends with fellow Zoo residents, 4-year-old Monte and 2-year-old Finn.

“We have been waiting in great anticipation for her arrival,” says Betsie Meister, associate curator of mammals for the Detroit Zoological Society. “Our staff is overjoyed that she is joining us and that we get to treat her like the queen she is.”

Kit’s life began along the California coast, where she was found stranded and alone in January 2010 at just 5 weeks old. After being rescued from Morro Bay Harbor, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service determined she could not return to the wild.

Kit spent most of her life at Monterey Bay Aquarium, where she thrived. Not only did she become the youngest sea otter to be visible to the public in the Aquarium’s history at 11 weeks old, but she was also an active participant in the Aquarium’s surrogacy program. This program has non-releasable female sea otters act as “foster moms” to pups found stranded in the wild, teaching them all the skills they need to potentially be released back into the wild. The program, enriching to foster moms and pups alike, has helped rear more than 70 orphaned pups and positively impacted the conservation of endangered southern sea otters. Kit was extremely successful in the program, rearing 10 pups throughout her time at the Aquarium. Due to her age and in recognition of her many contributions to the surrogacy program, she moved to the Detroit Zoo to live out her golden years with a smaller raft of otters. Within her first few days at the Zoo, Kit made herself right at home and could be seen playing and swimming with the younger Monte and Finn.

“She is going to be a great influence on the two boys,” Meister says. “She raised pups, so she knows how to handle them. She will be a good motherly figure to Finn and Monte and show them a thing or two.”

Though 14.5 is the median lifespan for a southern sea otter, according to the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, Meister says Kit is the definition of young at heart. Meister and the rest of the Detroit Zoo animal care team can’t wait to work with Kit and get to know her for a long time to come.

“She acts about 10 years younger than her age,” Meister says with a laugh. “She is so smart, playful and curious. She is going to fit right in here.”