The show where we talk about all things slimy, fuzzy, and all species in between.

在這個節目中，我們將討論所有粘糊糊、毛茸茸的東西，以及介於兩者之間的所有物種。

This is Josh, your host, and today we are joined by Senior Director of Mammals and Birds, Dennis Christen, to talk more about our fuzzy friends, the Southern Sea Otter, and learn more about their unique adventure to come here to Georgia Aquarium.

我是主持人喬希，今天我們請來了哺乳動物和鳥類高級主管丹尼斯-克里斯滕（Dennis Christen），和我們一起聊聊我們的絨毛朋友--南方海獺，瞭解它們來到佐治亞水族館的獨特冒險經歷。

Welcome to the podcast, Dennis.

歡迎來到播客，丹尼斯。

Thanks, Josh.

謝謝，喬希。

Good to see you, buddy.

很高興見到你，夥計

So, a lot of you folks out there listening might remember Dennis from our TV series, The Aquarium, where he was featured quite a bit, but Dennis, if you could, for some of the folks that might not have seen that just yet, can you just tell us a little bit about yourself and how you came to be here at Georgia Aquarium?

那麼，在座的很多人可能還記得丹尼斯，他曾在我們的電視劇《水族館》中出演過很多角色，但是丹尼斯，如果可以的話，對於一些可能還沒有看過那部電視劇的人來說，你能不能向我們介紹一下你自己，以及你是如何來到佐治亞水族館的？

Yeah, sure.

是的，當然。

Well, I am a Senior Director in our Zoological Operations Department, and with a focus on our mammal and bird teams, so I look after a lot of the different animals here that fall under that category, and of course, work with an amazing department, a team of animal care professionals that are specialized with the care of everything from our puffins to our penguins, beluga whales, harbor seals, Asian small-clawed otters, and sea otters.

我是動物園運營部的高級主管，主要負責哺乳動物和鳥類團隊的工作，是以我在這裡照顧著許多屬於這個類別的不同動物，當然，我還與一個出色的部門合作，這個部門是一個動物護理專業團隊，專門負責照顧從海雀到企鵝、白鯨、港海豹、亞洲小爪水獺和海獺等各種動物。

So basically, every single adorable species in the aquarium your department is responsible for.

是以，基本上水族館裡所有可愛的物種都是你們部門負責的。

Yeah, we have a good role here, for sure.

是的，我們在這裡扮演了一個很好的角色，這是肯定的。

And how I came to the aquarium, I've been here almost 17 years, so I've been here almost since the beginning of Georgia Aquarium, or since the opening of Georgia Aquarium.

我來到水族館已經快 17 年了，所以幾乎從佐治亞水族館成立之初，或者說從佐治亞水族館開館之初我就在這裡了。

I was recruited to Georgia Aquarium, I was working at a small marine research education and public aquarium in Alaska, actually, so recruited from Alaska to Georgia, you couldn't almost get further apart in the United States, and made the journey here in 2006, and initially my role was one of the assistant managers in our zoological operations team, and I was responsible for the entire cold water quest gallery, so everything from a spider crab to a California sea lion and a beluga whale, and all species in between.

我是應聘來到佐治亞州水族館的，當時我在阿拉斯加的一家小型海洋研究教育和公共水族館工作，所以從阿拉斯加應聘到佐治亞州，在美國幾乎沒有比這更遠的地方了。2006 年，我來到這裡，最初的角色是我們動物園營運團隊的助理經理之一，負責整個冷水探險展廳，所以從蜘蛛蟹到加州海獅和白鯨，以及介於兩者之間的所有物種，應有盡有。

And that was a very unique role.

這是一個非常獨特的角色。

At that time, the aquarium animal care group was kind of organized a little bit differently than it is now.

當時，水族館動物護理小組的組織形式與現在有些不同。

Right now I'm responsible for mammals and birds, and we have directors that are responsible for fish and inverts, and it's kind of broken up by taxon, it's broken up by animal groups, whereas back then it was broken up by, or divided, organized by gallery.

現在，我負責哺乳動物和鳥類，我們有負責魚類和無脊椎動物的主任，這是按類群、按動物組別來劃分的，而以前是按畫廊來劃分的。

So you had specialists that, you know, I had aquarists that reported to me that had a lot of experience with cold water fishes, and then I had specialists that had a lot of penguin experience, blue whale experience, things like that.

所以，你有專家，你知道，我有水族專家向我彙報，他們對冷水魚類有很多經驗，然後我有專家，他們有很多企鵝經驗、藍鯨經驗，諸如此類。

Very cool.

太酷了

Very cool.

太酷了

So, you know, kind of during that time, and I honestly, when I visited as a guest, it wasn't until 2010, which is well before I actually started here, have southern sea otters always been a part of our animal population here?

那麼，你知道，在那段時間裡，老實說，當我作為客人來訪時，直到 2010 年，也就是在我真正開始在這裡工作之前，南方海獺一直是我們這裡動物種群的一部分嗎？

Yes.

是的。

Yeah.

是啊

Southern sea otters were some of the first mammals that arrived at Georgia Aquarium, and we had our first two animals were very special animals, Oz and Gracie.

南方海獺是第一批來到佐治亞水族館的哺乳動物，我們最初飼養的兩隻動物非常特別，它們是奧茲和格蕾西。

They're no longer with us, but they lived very, very long lives here at Georgia Aquarium, and they're a very special part of our southern sea otter history.

雖然它們已經離開了我們，但它們在佐治亞水族館生活了很長很長的時間，它們是我們南方海獺歷史中非常特殊的一部分。

Right.

對

And we'll get into Oz and Gracie in just a little bit, but I think it's, we're kind of at a good point in our discussion too, because I'm very curious.

我們稍後會討論奧茲和格蕾西，但我認為，我們的討論也到了一個很好的階段，因為我非常好奇。

There are different types of sea otters, correct?

海獺有不同的種類，對嗎？

Yes.

是的。

Yeah.

是啊

There are a few different subspecies of sea otters.

海獺有幾個不同的亞種。

The sea otters that we have at Georgia Aquarium are southern sea otters, which inhabit the central coast of California.

佐治亞水族館飼養的海獺是南部海獺，棲息在加利福尼亞中部海岸。

It's a very threatened subspecies.

這是一個瀕臨滅絕的亞種。

It's listed on the U.S.

它已被列入美國

Endangered Species Act as threatened.

瀕危物種法》列為瀕危物種。

There's not very many of them, and they're very vulnerable.

他們人數不多，而且非常脆弱。

And then there are sea otters that inhabit the waters of Washington State through British Columbia into Alaska.

還有海獺，它們棲息在從華盛頓州到不列顛哥倫比亞省再到阿拉斯加的水域中。

Those are the northern sea otters.

那些是北部海獺。

And then there's another subspecies that's kind of more on the, through the Aleutians down into the waters off of Asia.

另外還有一個亞種，主要分佈在阿留申群島，一直延伸到亞洲附近海域。

Understood.

明白。

You know, it's interesting because in my job here at the Aquarium, one of my, you know, on our interpretive graphics and our educational elements that guests can experience as they walk through the Coldwater Quest Gallery.

你知道，這很有趣，因為我在水族館工作時，其中一項工作就是繪製我們的解說圖和教育元素，讓遊客在遊覽冷水探險長廊時有所體驗。

And just last year, finishing up a project with the sea otters, what I found very interesting was how difficult it was for, you know, finding stock photos or things like that, like finding wild photos that were labeled properly.

就在去年，我完成了一個關於海獺的項目，我發現非常有趣的一點是，你知道，要找到圖片庫裡的照片或類似的東西有多難，比如找到標註正確的野生照片。

So if one of our listeners out there is trying to distinguish the difference between them, are there any like, you know, physiological things?

那麼，如果有聽眾想分辨它們之間的區別，有沒有什麼類似的，你知道的，生理上的東西？

Is there any way when you're looking at a photo, you can be like, that's a southern sea otter, or that's one of the northern ecotypes?

當你看到一張照片時，有沒有什麼辦法讓你覺得，那是一隻南方海獺，或者那是北方生態型的海獺？

Is there a way to kind of tell them apart?

有什麼辦法能把它們區分開來嗎？

Because I had to learn kind of on the fly for last year's Coldwater project.

因為在去年的冷水項目中，我不得不臨時抱佛腳。

There's a couple of things.

有幾件事。

It's very difficult just looking at a sea otter, if it's a sea otter just laying on the surface of the water, unless there's some sort of scale.

如果海獺只是躺在水面上，除非有某種刻度，否則很難看到它。

Northern sea otters are generally quite a bit larger than southern sea otters.

北方海獺通常比南方海獺大很多。

So if you see an adult, southern sea otters can be substantially smaller than a northern, but also just kind of looking at what the environment is.

是以，如果你看到一隻成年海獺，南方海獺的體型可能比北方海獺小得多，但也要看環境如何。

And so if you see a sea otter that's wrapping itself in a certain species of kelp, there's a lot of different types of kelp that would inhabit, or you would find in different parts of their range.

是以，如果你看到一隻海獺把自己包在某種海藻裡，那麼它們棲息的海藻種類有很多，或者說，你會在它們分佈的不同地區發現不同種類的海藻。

Gotcha.

抓到你了

Yeah, so if you're taking a cruise from San Francisco to Alaska, the otters that you see when you leave San Francisco are going to look a little bit different than the ones when you reach Alaska.

是的，如果你乘坐遊輪從舊金山前往阿拉斯加，離開舊金山時看到的水獺和到達阿拉斯加時看到的水獺會有些不同。

Yeah, if you see an otter in San Francisco, that's going to be pretty awesome. You'll probably see them a little bit further south.

是啊，如果你在舊金山看到一隻水獺，那就太棒了。 你可能會在更南邊一點的地方看到它們。

A little bit further south.

再往南一點

Fair enough.

有道理。

But ideally, in their original range.

但最好是在其原有的範圍內。

And there's a desire to see sea otters again, southern sea otters, in the San Francisco Bay Area.

人們希望在舊金山灣區再次看到海獺，南方海獺。

So yeah.

所以是的。

Gotcha.

抓到你了

Hopefully within our careers, we'll see that someday.

希望在我們的職業生涯中，有一天我們能看到這一點。

Yeah.

是啊

Well, I knew that.

我就知道

That was my segue into that.

這就是我的切入點。

A little conservation tidbit there.

保護環境小知識

There you go.

這就對了。

No, I'm lying.

不，我在撒謊。

I had no idea.

我完全不知道。

But that's okay.

不過沒關係。

So with that being said, with the desire to bring them back, and then we'll kind of lead into kind of our role here at the Aquarium, what role does this species play in their environment?

既然如此，我們希望讓它們回來，然後我們再談談我們在水族館的角色，這個物種在它們的環境中扮演什麼角色？

Why are they so important?

它們為何如此重要？

And you had mentioned kelp, which is, I know, a big kind of hot-button conservation topic right now.

你還提到了海帶，我知道這是目前一個熱門的保護話題。

Can you just kind of go into a little bit about the role that sea otters play and how this weird plant, you know, that everyone knows kelp, but they don't know what kelp actually does or why otters are so much a part of that, of kelp's story?

你能不能稍微介紹一下海獺扮演的角色，以及這種奇怪的植物，你知道，每個人都知道海帶，但他們不知道海帶實際上是做什麼的，或者為什麼海獺是海帶故事的重要組成部分？

Yeah.

是啊

Well, the sea otters have a very fascinating history.

海獺的歷史非常精彩。

When you go back within the last century, even, these are animals that have experienced quite a bit in terms of hunting pressure over the last couple of centuries.

即使追溯到上個世紀，這些動物在過去幾個世紀中也經歷了相當大的狩獵壓力。

There was a fur trade.

當時有毛皮貿易。

They are an animal that has the most dense fur of any mammal.

它們是哺乳動物中皮毛最濃密的動物。

And that luxurious fur came at a cost, and they were hunted throughout their range and in many areas were extirpated, were essentially extinct from that region of the coast.

奢華的皮毛是有代價的，它們在整個分佈區都遭到獵殺，在許多地區滅絕了，基本上絕跡於該海岸地區。

And once that happened, it was pretty interesting in that it changed the balance of those ecosystems.

這種情況一旦發生，就改變了這些生態系統的平衡，非常有趣。

So they inhabit very inshore, rocky coasts along the Pacific, and they are predators of a lot of different invertebrates.

是以，它們棲息在太平洋沿岸的近海岩石海岸，是許多不同無脊椎動物的捕食者。

They eat a lot of clams, abalone, sea urchins, things that like to graze.

它們吃很多蛤蜊、鮑魚、海膽等喜歡吃草的東西。

And when you take a sea otter out of that environment, you see an abundance of those grazers, and they essentially take out large swaths of what would have normally been a kelp forest.

當你把海獺帶離那個環境時，你就會看到大量的食草動物，它們基本上會把通常是海藻林的大片區域吃掉。

Kelp forests are fascinating ecosystems.

海帶森林是迷人的生態系統。

They're a hotbed of diversity and almost like a little nursery of sorts for different fishes, different fish species.

它們是多樣性的溫床，幾乎就像不同魚類、不同魚種的小苗圃。

And so when you take sea otters out of that, you see an abundance of mostly sea urchins that kind of overpopulate and they graze out the kelp.

是以，當你把海獺排除在外時，你就會看到大量的海膽，這些海膽數量過多，把海藻都吃光了。

Another aspect of kelp is it kind of helps with dampening wave action.

海帶的另一個作用是有助於減弱波浪作用。

And so you see a lot, when you remove the kelp, you see a lot of, you see a strong drop in the diversity of animals that inhabit those areas.

是以，當你移除海藻時，你會看到很多棲息在這些區域的動物的多樣性大幅下降。

And then also a lot more wave action and erosion of coastlines.

此外，海浪也會對海岸線造成更大的侵蝕。

So sea otters are really important to that marine ecosystem, that coastal ecosystem.

是以，海獺對海洋生態系統和沿海生態系統非常重要。

And so when sea otters started kind of coming back, knocking back some of those grazer inverts, we saw kind of a return to those more natural kelp forest kind of ecosystems and returns of fish populations and things that were really good for the environment.

是以，當海獺開始迴歸，擊退了一些食草無脊椎動物後，我們看到那些更自然的海藻森林生態系統又回來了，魚類種群又回來了，這些都對環境非常有益。

Sure.

當然。

And this is kind of a, it's funny, this is kind of a shameless plug in a way, but one of my favorite things about the Coldwater Project that I was a part of last year was that we created an interactive, basically.

有趣的是，這有點像無恥的插播，去年我參與的冷水項目中，我最喜歡的一件事就是，我們基本上創建了一個互動平臺。

It's very similar to kind of like Fruit Ninja, something like that, where you get to be the otter and your role is taking out the urchins to save the kelp forest.

它非常類似於《水果忍者》之類的遊戲，在遊戲中，你將扮演水獺，消滅海膽，拯救海藻森林。

It was a really fun thing to be a part of and kind of work on that.

能參與其中併為此付出努力，真是一件非常有趣的事情。

So if you guys, I see you out there playing with it every morning, so I know you're very proud of it.

所以，如果你們，我每天早上都看到你們在外面玩它，所以我知道你們為它感到非常自豪。

I do really enjoy that game and I'm pretty sure I have the highest score.

我真的很喜歡這個遊戲，我敢肯定我的分數是最高的。

And whoever does have the highest score, I will come back tomorrow and beat it.

誰的分數最高，我明天再來打敗他。

Don't worry.

別擔心

Yeah.

是啊

So yeah, it's a lot of fun.

所以，是的，這很有趣。

So you guys are, if you're walking through, it's right by the, it's right by the sea otter habitat.

所以，如果你們走過這裡，就會看到海獺棲息地。

You can kind of play with a cool interactive to learn about everything that Dennis just mentioned there.

你可以玩一個很酷的互動遊戲，瞭解丹尼斯剛才提到的一切。

So, all right.

那好吧

So you've talked about their role in the ecosystem and how important their conservation is and their return to their natural environment out there and kind of repopulating that Southern sea otter coastline.

所以，你已經談到了它們在生態系統中的作用，以及保護它們的重要性，還有它們回到自然環境中，重新繁衍南部海獺海岸線。

So what role do our sea otters here at Georgia Aquarium play in that whole conservation story?

那麼，佐治亞水族館的海獺在整個保護故事中扮演什麼角色呢？

Well, a large part of conservation, Josh, is really getting the message out that there is something to be concerned about or to even be worth conserving.

喬希，保護工作的很大一部分就是要讓人們知道，有些東西是值得關注的，甚至是值得保護的。

Sea otters play a huge role in that and unfortunately or fortunately, depending on how you look at it, they are very charismatic.

海獺在其中發揮了巨大作用，不幸或幸運的是，它們非常有魅力，這取決於你如何看待它。

It's hard not to see a sea otter and just want to fall in love.

看到海獺，你很難不想墜入愛河。

It's one of those exhibits that I have throughout my career found fascinating.

這是我在整個職業生涯中都覺得非常吸引人的展品之一。

I've worked with sea otters my entire 30, almost 33 years and it's been fascinating to me the entire time that it is the one type of animal that you can see guests walk up to and the animals might not be doing anything but sleeping and guests are just infatuated.

我和海獺一起工作了 30 年，將近 33 年，一直以來我都很喜歡這種動物，你可以看到遊客走到海獺身邊，海獺可能什麼都沒做，只是在睡覺，而遊客卻非常著迷。

They'll stay there for 20 minutes sometimes just watching an animal sleep and you don't really see that with too many other animal exhibits and so it's kind of a benefit in a way that you have this animal that is such a key part of the marine ecosystem that has had a very tumultuous history and there are populations that are still very vulnerable.

他們有時會在那裡呆上 20 分鐘，只是看著動物睡覺，這在其他很多動物展覽中是看不到的。

And so from a conservation status, the impact that Georgia Aquarium has with the popularity of this as an institution, the mission that we have to better understand and conserve these types of animals is very important and powerful to get the message out that these are animals that yes they're cute, yes they're fascinating but they actually have a very important conservation story to be told and Georgia Aquarium is a very important part of telling that story.

是以，從保護的角度來看，佐治亞水族館作為一個機構，它的知名度所產生的影響，以及我們更好地瞭解和保護這類動物的使命，都是非常重要和有力的，讓人們瞭解到，這些動物是可愛的，是迷人的，但它們實際上有一個非常重要的保護故事，佐治亞水族館是講述這個故事的一個非常重要的部分。

That's awesome.

太棒了

So with all that being said and you even said kind of the history of the Southern Sea Otter and things like that, let's take a little trip back in time here.

說了這麼多，你甚至還提到了南方海獺的歷史，讓我們來回顧一下吧。

Let's go back 17 years and can you kind of tell us, you know you had mentioned Oz and Gracie earlier, can you kind of take us through kind of the timeline of Southern Sea Otters here at Georgia Aquarium and you know I'm sure some of our listeners are quite attached to some of them.

讓我們回到 17 年前，你能不能告訴我們，你剛才提到了奧茲和格蕾西，你能不能帶我們回顧一下佐治亞水族館裡南方海獺的發展歷程，你知道我肯定有些聽眾對它們中的一些很有感情。

You know some of these Sea Otters actually have their own fan pages and things like that so just kind of tell us about the history of Sea Otters here at Georgia Aquarium and how some of them or all of them got here.

你知道有些海獺其實有自己的粉絲頁面之類的東西，所以請告訴我們佐治亞水族館裡海獺的歷史，以及其中一些或所有海獺是如何來到這裡的。

Well we have been very fortunate here at Georgia Aquarium and within my department to be able to care for some amazing animals.

我們在佐治亞水族館和我所在的部門非常幸運，能夠照顧一些了不起的動物。

Obviously we care about these animals as a species and want to conserve them but when we have the opportunity to work with individual animals like these Sea Otters it is a very powerful and impactful role to play and we've been blessed for lack of a better word to have some amazing long-lived Sea Otters within our population here.

顯然，我們關心這些作為一個物種的動物，並希望保護它們，但當我們有機會與像這些海獺這樣的動物個體合作時，我們就能發揮非常強大和有影響力的作用。

In 2005 we brought two Southern Sea Otters from California that were living at another aquarium out west and transported them here to Atlanta and the city fell in love with Oz and Gracie and they lived far beyond their average life expectancy and lived very good lives here and really served as strong ambassadors for opening the eyes of a lot of people, millions and millions of guests that had come through the aquarium during those years.

2005 年，我們從加利福尼亞帶來了兩隻生活在西部另一家水族館的南方海獺，並將它們運到亞特蘭大，這座城市愛上了奧茲和格蕾西，它們的壽命遠遠超過了平均壽命，在這裡生活得非常好，真正成為了讓很多人大開眼界的形象大使。

In 2010 we were working with our colleagues out at the Monterey Bay Aquarium that has a Sea Otter research and conservation program, a very strong Monterey Bay's program is internationally recognized and they are one of the few facilities at that time the only facility that had what we call a surrogate program.

2010 年，我們與蒙特雷灣水族館的同事合作，該水族館有一個海獺研究和保護項目，蒙特雷灣水族館的項目非常強大，得到了國際認可，他們是當時少數幾個擁有我們所說的代理項目的機構之一。

The journey or the evolution of rescue and rehabilitation of Sea Otters has been quite interesting.

拯救和恢復海獺的歷程或演變相當有趣。

These are animals that spend upwards of almost a year with their moms after they're born.

這些動物在出生後要和媽媽一起度過將近一年的時間。

They're very, very dependent and require a lot of coaching, mentoring.

他們非常非常依賴他人，需要大量的輔導和指導。

They learn their foraging skills from their mom and like some other species like a lot of harbor seals or a lot of foasted seals have very brief maternal investment periods where they're with their moms for sometimes only with some species only days if not a week and like for harbor seals that we have here at Georgia Aquarium usually three to four weeks before they're weaned.

它們從媽媽那裡學習覓食技能，就像其他一些物種一樣，比如許多港海豹或許多灘海豹的母性投資期非常短暫，它們與媽媽在一起的時間有時只有幾天，有些物種甚至只有一週，就像我們在佐治亞水族館飼養的港海豹，通常要三到四周才能斷奶。

They moms kind of wean them they just go off on their own and survive.

媽媽們會給它們斷奶，讓它們自己生存下去。

Sea Otters don't do that very well and it took a lot of trial and error to kind of figure that out and for the most part if you don't have an ability to really provide that maternal care for the pups that are that are rescued it's very difficult to reintegrate them back successfully into the wild and the Monterey Bay team since the mid 80s has been trying this in various forms and they they've gone you know where they had animal care staff that were you know pretty much just totally invested in trying to do everything possible to play the part of a sea otter mom and and teach these pups everything they would need to know to be able to forage and how to find food and how to break it open and and and they you know tried a number of times to rehabilitate animals like that and release them back into the into the wild and had very little success doing that and so for a long time if there was a stranded sea otter pup it was pretty much deemed non-releasable by the US Fish and Wildlife Service pretty quickly and then if you know and then provided a home was available at a at an accredited institution of an aquarium or zoo that animal would be moved into that that sort of public display type realm but what the folks at Monterey Bay Aquarium started doing was taking some of their older females in their in their exhibit their exhibit population and essentially using them as surrogate moms for these stranded pups where they would provide one of their older females with a with a newly stranded pup to see if the female would take it under her wing for lack of better word and and start raising the pup and that became a very successful program to this day it's very successful and it's starting to branch out into into some other partner facilities that that we hope hopefully we'll be working with in the future on that as well and so but the limiting factor is the number of females that can serve as surrogates because it's a very there's only a handful of them it takes a long time and there have been years where there's more pups stranding or being either abandoned or in the case of some of the animals that we brought here to Georgia Aquarium their mothers were preyed upon by white sharks and and therefore abandoned and so if there's not enough surrogates in the in the program then those animals are deemed non-releasable and an effort is made to try and place them into into aquariums and zoos.