Name: 海獺如何在大氣河流中生存？ (How Do Sea Otters Survive Atmospheric Rivers?)
Uploaded: 2025-08-10T15:25:08.000Z
Duration: 8 min 17 s

I'm on the west coast of North America, that is.

And once again, the west coast is getting slammed by an atmospheric river.

西海岸再次受到大氣河流的衝擊。

Which brings me to the topic of today's video.

A few weeks ago, I had an Instagram follower ask me, what do sea otters do during storms?

幾周前，一位 Instagram 追隨者問我，海獺在暴風雨中會做些什麼？

And what about other marine mammals like seals, sea lions, or walruses?

那麼其他海洋哺乳動物，如海豹、海獅或海象呢？

I'm KP, a marine biologist who has spent a decade working with sea otters.

我是 KP，一名海洋生物學家，與海獺一起工作了十年。

Coastal storms have increased in number and frequency.

沿海風暴的數量和頻率都有所增加。

And there is a strong body of evidence that shows that these storms can adversely affect many marine mammals, including sea otters.

有大量證據表明，這些風暴會對包括海獺在內的許多海洋哺乳動物造成不利影響。

Unlike you or me who typically head indoors when it's cold and miserable out, sea otters don't really have that option.

你或我通常會在寒冷和悲慘的天氣裡躲進室內，而海獺則不同，它們沒有這樣的選擇。

For starters, sea otters are not very migratory and will generally occupy a territory that is just a few kilometers in size, and they'll remain there year round.

首先，海獺的遷徙能力並不強，它們一般會佔據方圓幾公里的領地，而且全年都會待在那裡。

So when storms hit, sea otters really have no choice but to just ride them out.

是以，當風暴襲來時，海獺真的別無選擇，只能躲避風暴。

Thankfully, sea otters are almost perfectly adapted to life in the rainy Pacific Northwest.

值得慶幸的是，海獺幾乎完全適應了多雨的西北太平洋地區的生活。

With around 600,000 to 1 million hair follicles per square inch, it is the densest fur coat in the animal kingdom.

每平方英寸大約有 60 萬到 100 萬個毛囊，是動物王國中毛髮最密集的皮毛。

Their fur has two layers, long waterproof guard hairs, as well as a warm and dense undercoat that helps trap air and warmth.

它們的皮毛有兩層，一層是長長的防水護毛，另一層是溫暖濃密的底毛，有助於吸附空氣和保暖。

You might even catch otters blowing air into their fur or see bubbles rising from their coat when they're swimming underwater.

當水獺在水下游泳時，您甚至可以捕捉到它們向皮毛吹氣，或者看到氣泡從它們的皮毛中升起。

Most sea otters will spend their entire lives out to sea, never even setting foot on land.

大多數海獺一生都在海上度過，甚至從未踏上過陸地。

Even in the heaviest downpour, a sea otter's skin will stay completely dry, as long as they've properly groomed their fur coat.

只要海獺適當地梳理皮毛，即使在最大暴雨中，它們的皮膚也會保持完全乾燥。

I will say that in my expertise, sea otters don't tend to sleep quite as well when it is pouring rain.

我想說的是，根據我的經驗，下大雨的時候，海獺往往睡得不太安穩。

They'll kind of just lie there looking really disgruntled, a bit like a wet cat.

它們會躺在那裡，看起來非常不滿，有點像一隻溼漉漉的貓。

But I'm still often impressed by what they can sleep through.

但我還是經常被他們的睡姿所折服。

It's easy to forget that these are wild animals who have survived for thousands of years.

人們很容易忘記，這些都是生存了數千年的野生動物。

And they are fully capable of weathering pretty extreme storms.

它們完全能夠經受住相當極端的風暴。

I mean, just this week, our friends at Sea Otter Savvy shared this video of a rattlesnake weathering a hail storm.

我的意思是，就在本週，我們的朋友 Sea Otter Savvy 分享了一段響尾蛇抵禦冰雹風暴的視頻。

And they're all kind of, you know, creeping together closer as the hail gets worse.

隨著冰雹越下越大，它們都在逐漸靠近。

But yeah, I mean, they're kind of just laying there and just getting pelted with the hail.

不過是的，我的意思是，它們只是躺在那裡，被冰雹砸來砸去。

It's just, it's just part of being a wild sea otter, I think.

我想，這只是野生海獺的一部分。

This behavior where sea otters hold hands is known as rafting.

海獺手拉手的這種行為被稱為 "漂流"。

It is one of the ways they've learned how to deal with storms, because it's not so much the rain or the hail that's the problem, but the wind and the waves.

這是他們學會如何應對風暴的方法之一，因為問題不在於雨或冰雹，而在於風和浪。

Anyone who has ever swam in the ocean knows that waves can push you in directions you don't want to go.

在海里遊過泳的人都知道，海浪會把你推向你不想去的方向。

So sea otters, especially mothers and their pups, will hold paws in order to keep from washing away from each other.

是以，海獺，尤其是母海獺和幼海獺，會用爪子抱住對方，以免被沖走。

They also tend to raft up in areas shielded from heavy wind and waves, in estuaries, coves, and especially kelp forests.

它們還傾向於在河口、小海灣，特別是海藻林等避開大風大浪的地方漂流。

Sea otters have a special relationship with kelp forests, which I talked about in this video right up here.

海獺與海藻森林有著特殊的關係，我在這段視頻中就談到過。

A healthy kelp forest can reduce wave energy by up to 85 percent, even during these bigger storms.

健康的海藻林可以減少高達 85% 的波浪能量，即使在這些較大的風暴中也是如此。

And sea otters will even wrap themselves in kelp and use it as a sort of seat belt to prevent them from drifting away while they sleep.

海獺甚至會用海帶裹住自己，把海帶當作安全帶，防止自己在睡覺時飄走。

But not all marine mammals are as well adapted to weather these storms.

但並不是所有的海洋哺乳動物都能適應這些風暴。

Seals and sea lion pups are especially vulnerable to heavy rains and high winds.

海豹和海獅幼崽特別容易受到暴雨和大風的影響。

Unlike sea otters who give birth out in the ocean typically, pinnipeds haul out on land in large breeding colonies known as rookeries.

與通常在海洋中分娩的海獺不同，鬆獅在陸地上的大型繁殖群中產仔，這些繁殖群被稱為 "繁殖地"。

Newborn pinnipeds are pretty weak and need to stay in the rookery for several months, simply because they're not able to swim very well.

剛出生的鳳尾魚非常虛弱，需要在育雛室裡待上幾個月，因為它們不太會游泳。

In this time of early life, pups can easily be washed out of the colony by waves, making them extremely vulnerable to stranding and starvation due to separation from their mothers.

在幼年時期，幼鯨很容易被海浪衝出繁殖地，極易因與母親分離而擱淺和捱餓。

This winter, a string of nine consecutive atmospheric rivers hit the west coast, causing epic storm surges that tragically swept a large number of newborn elephant seals out to sea.

今年冬天，西海岸連續遭遇了九次大暴雨襲擊，造成了史詩般的風暴潮，大量新生海象不幸被捲入大海。

Scientists are still taking stock of how many were lost, but they're already saying that this year's mortality rate is more than they normally see.

科學家們仍在清點損失的數量，但他們已經表示，今年的死亡率比他們通常看到的要高。

This isn't isolated to the west coast of North America either.

這種情況也並非僅限於北美西海岸。

In Chile, a study was recently published on the vulnerability of marine mammals to coastal storms, specifically the South American sea lion, which is a really weird looking sea lion, by the way.

在智利，最近發表了一項關於海洋哺乳動物易受沿海風暴影響的研究，特別是南美海獅，順便說一句，南美海獅長相非常怪異。

The study found a strong correlation between wave intensity and the number of stranded sea lion pups.

研究發現，海浪強度與擱淺的海獅幼崽數量之間存在密切聯繫。

While sea otters are typically better than pinnipeds at weathering storms, weather-related strandings do occur.

雖然海獺通常比鰭足類動物更善於抵禦風暴，但與天氣有關的擱淺也時有發生。

A sea otter that I worked with named Katmai.

和我一起工作的海獺名叫卡特邁。

Katmai was around two or three months old when she was found alongside an Alaskan road.

凱特邁大約兩三個月大時，在阿拉斯加的一條公路旁被發現。

The people who rescued her theorized that she had been separated from her mother during a recent storm that produced exceptionally strong waves.

救起她的人推測，她是在最近的一次暴風雨中與母親失散的，當時海浪特別大。

Attempts to locate her mother failed, so she was hand-raised by my friends at the Alaska Sea Life Center.

尋找它母親的努力失敗了，於是它被我在阿拉斯加海洋生物中心的朋友親手養大。

Because she was hand-raised, Katmai was deemed non-releasable and has gone on to live a very fulfilling life as an ambassador for her species.

因為是人工飼養，卡德麥被認為是不可放歸的，她作為物種大使過著非常充實的生活。

And to be honest, now Katmai never has to deal with these surging storms and giant waves like her wild counterparts out in the Pacific Ocean.

老實說，現在的卡特邁再也不用像太平洋上的那些野生動物一樣，面對洶湧的風暴和巨浪了。

And I just want to take a minute to say how much I love getting questions like this.

我只想花一分鐘說，我非常喜歡收到這樣的問題。

Honestly, talking about this stuff is my biggest passion.

老實說，談論這些東西是我最大的愛好。

The very reason that I started this YouTube channel way back in 2020 was actually to reach out to people, teach people about the ocean animals that we have, and hopefully inspire people to be a little bit more passionate about our oceans, the creatures that live in them, and conservation.

早在 2020 年，我就開設了這個 YouTube 頻道，目的就是為了向人們宣傳海洋知識，讓人們瞭解我們擁有的海洋動物，並希望激發人們對海洋、海洋生物和海洋保護的熱情。

So if you ever have a question, drop it in the comments or send me a DM.

如果您有任何問題，請在評論中提出，或給我發 DM。

And if you like the video, make sure to hit that like and subscribe button and you'll be notified the next time one goes live.

如果您喜歡這段視頻，請務必點擊 "喜歡 "和 "訂閱 "按鈕，下次視頻上線時，我們會通知您。

And that way you'll be notified the next time that we have a video.

這樣，下次我們有視頻時，您就會收到通知。

And what about other marine mammals like seals?

那麼其他海洋哺乳動物呢，比如海豹？

You're looking at me like you're hating the way this is going.

你看著我，好像很討厭我這樣做。

I'm looking at you like I'm getting ray in my face.

我看著你，就像我的臉上被射進了射線。