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Animal Themes
Endangered Animals Theme Unit
Mammals

Sea Otters

Sea Otters
Reading Level
     edHelper's suggested reading level:   grades 4 to 7
     Flesch-Kincaid grade level:   7.78

Vocabulary
     challenging words:    banned, disadvantage, extinction, hypothermia, mollusk, soiled, propel, highly, spills, survival, rafts, ruthless, warmth, death, indeed, male
     content words:    Pacific Ocean, San Francisco Bay, International Fur Seal Treaty

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Other Languages
     Spanish: Las Nutrias Marinas

Sea Otters   
1     Sea otters are the smallest of all marine mammals, with a body length ranging from 3.3 to 4 feet and weight from 45 to 65 pounds. They are also the only marine mammals that do not have blubber, a layer of fat, under their skin to keep them warm in often cold or even frigid waters. (Seals and whales are two examples of marine mammals that have blubber.) To make up for this disadvantage, sea otters have the best fur that other animals can only dream of. In fact, their fur is the world's densest, with up to 1 million hairs per square inch!
 
2     Sea otters like to carry out most of their daily activities - such as swimming, resting, pooping, eating, or even sleeping - by floating on their backs. When they want to move about, they simply use their webbed, flipper-like hind legs to propel. They also use their long, flat tails to navigate.
 
3     Because sea otters don't have blubber, they must stay active and eat often to fight off the cold. Indeed, they have such good appetites that they consume up to 25% of their body weight in food every day! Sea otters love feeding on clams, sea urchins, crabs, abalones, snails, octopuses, and fish.

Paragraphs 4 to 8:
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