Some otters rely on tools to bust open hard-shelled prey items like snails, and a new study suggests this tool use is helping them to survive as their favorite, easier-to-eat foods disappear.

Cute and cuddly as they are, otters eat abalone like popcorn. A 60-pound sea otter can consume a quarter of its weight in abalone in a day.

Cute and cuddly as they are, otters eat abalone like popcorn. A 60-pound sea otter can consume a quarter of its weight in abalone in a day.

A southern sea otter grooms while her pup nurses in Moss Landing. Female sea otters expend enormous amounts of energy on pup-rearing. (Photo by Lilian Carswell/USFWS) A southern sea otter enjoys an ...

Some otters rely on tools to bust open hard-shelled prey items like snails, and a new study suggests this tool use is helping them to survive as their favorite, easier-to-eat foods disappear.

UC Davis researchers trying to understand the sea otter's slow recovery in California have found an important clue: Some sea otters feed almost exclusively on animals that raise their risk of being ...

Otters are carnivores, so their diets primarily consist of meat. What type of meat depends on what's available. Most otters will eat crustaceans and fish, according to the Blue Reef Aquarium .

Depending on its habitat, the diet of an otter can vary. Here's what's an otter's favorite food.

Sea otter populations are rebounding in the eastern North Pacific. There, they devour huge quantities of shellfish and other marine critters that people like to eat, too. But any commercial losses ...

"For example," she said, "if we know that sea otters, eating certain sizes of abalone, will increase in a particular location, we might target restoration efforts somewhere else. Understanding threats ...