Rosa, the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s oldest sea otter and one in all its social media stars, died Wednesday, the aquarium stated in a press release.
The southern sea otter, 24, had served as a surrogate mom for 15 otters, probably the most within the aquarium’s historical past. She outlived the life expectancy for her species within the wild, which is often 15 to twenty years, in keeping with a submit by the aquarium on Fb.
Rosa was identified for her blond head and “her signature head-all-the-way-back swimming model,” the aquarium wrote.
“Rosa was one in all our most playful sea otters, and even at 24 years outdated, she would nonetheless be seen frolicking and wrestling with the youthful otters when she instigated it,” stated Melanie Oerter, curator of mammals.
“Rosa was normally discovered sleeping towards the window whereas on exhibit together with her chin tucked tight into her chest and her tail swishing forwards and backwards,” she stated.
She first arrived as a “five-pound, four-week-old pup after being stranded as an orphan in September 1999,” and was launched into the wild for a number of years, in keeping with a web page about Rosa on the aquarium’s web site. She returned to the Monterey Bay Aquarium in 2002 after specialists decided that she had turn into too accustomed to people and was not fitted to life within the wild.
Up to now a number of weeks, Rosa’s well being deteriorated, and specialists on the aquarium determined to euthanize her. “She handed away peacefully, surrounded by her caretakers,” in keeping with the aquarium’s submit.
Within the submit, the aquarium referred to as Rosa a “charismatic ambassador for her threatened species” who performed “a number one function within the story of sea otter restoration from near-extinction throughout the fur commerce.”
