are sea otters a keystone species?
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Sea otters are a "keystone species" which means that they can exert top-down pressure via predation on sea urchins, which are grazers upon kelp.
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Sea otters are a highly endangered marine mammal. They are at great risk of extinction due to many reasons such as fur trade, shark attacks, habitat degradation, oil spills ,fishing nets, disease and being viewed as competition. Sea otters had have been listed as endangered for a long time.
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Seals and the rather incorrectly named “sea lions” are carnivores, very similar to land predators. These animals are not in any way closely related to whales, but they do have a surprisingly close link to modern bears, dogs, and weasels.
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Ringed seals are considered a keystone species in Arctic marine ecosystems, so that changes in population dynamics may have cascading effects on the ecosystem (Mouquet et al., 2013;Luque et al., 2014; Hamilton et al., 2015) .
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['Vaquita.', 'Whale sharks.', 'Hawksbill sea turtle.', 'Sea otter.', 'Blue whale.', 'River dolphins.', 'Florida manatee.', 'Galapagos penguin.']
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North American river otters are active year-round, and are most active at night and during crepuscular hours. They become much more nocturnal in the spring, summer, and fall seasons, and more diurnal during winter.
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Sea lions (left) are brown, bark loudly, "walk" on land using their large flippers and have visible ear flaps. Seals have small flippers, wriggle on their bellies on land, and lack visible ear flaps. ... Both seals and sea lions, together with the walrus, are pinnipeds, which means "fin footed" in Latin.
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Leopards are considered a keystone species, a creature that has a disproportionately large impact on its local environment.
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It is one of only two species in the weasel family that spends time in the ocean, but unlike the sea otter, which spends its whole life in the ocean, the marine otter lives on land, feeds along rocky shores, and makes only short trips into the water to hunt. ... Adult marine otters are quite small.
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Asian elephants are keystone species that play an important role in threatened ecosystems.
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A foundation species is usually the most abundant, and a keystone species exerts the most influence on maintaining biodiversity. There is no difference the terms are used interchangeably. A foundation species is the least abundant, and a keystone species is the most abundant.
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Sea lions (left) are brown, bark loudly, "walk" on land using their large flippers and have visible ear flaps. Seals have small flippers, wriggle on their bellies on land, and lack visible ear flaps. ... Secondly, sea lions have small flaps for outer ears.
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Hammerhead Sharks | National Geographic. Hammerheads are aggressive hunters, feeding on smaller fish, octopuses, squid, and crustaceans. They do not actively seek out human prey, but are very defensive and will attack when provoked.
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Otters rarely attack humans, but can sometimes be territorial, especially when they are protecting their babies.
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As the aquarium explained, “Sea otters can give birth in water or on land. You'll notice that mom starts grooming her pup right away to help it stay warm and buoyant—a well-groomed sea otter pup is so buoyant it's practically unsinkable!”
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A keystone species is often, but not always, a predator. Just a few predators can control the distribution and population of large numbers of prey species. ... Another example of a predator acting as a keystone species is the presence of gray wolves in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.
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Sea otters can use both auditory and visual cues to avoid hunters. ... Sea otter meat is delicious. They eat all the good stuff, so you can expect them to taste delicious as well. I eat some of the meat, but I give much of it away to elders in the community.