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Have you ever been so passionate about something that it brings you to tears? For one otter-obsessed woman, the opportunity to meet these adorable animals in person was a dream come true. With her heart pounding and excitement building, she couldn't wait to finally come face to face with the creatures she had admired from afar for so long.

Adorable otters Hana and Kotaro and some fun with an electric toothbrush. Video: 6 minutes, 15 seconds

Otter 841 has quickly become a phenomenon ever since the viral video back in mid-June. Folks from around the world have made their way to West Cliff Drive to try and get a peak at Santa Cruz’s most wanted sea otter. "I'm up here visiting friends, but I have also heard about 841 and I thought I'd come up and see her in the wild,” said Peter Cresco, visiting from Los Angeles. The craze is turning into dollar signs for some choosing to capitalize on the otter’s popularity. Anything from shirts, jackets, and mugs can be found online with a...

Spencer, who is in his 60s, was reportedly approaching the visitors center when he spotted around 20 otters crossing a dimly-lit path in front of him. The animal encounter went south after a jogger ran through the pack, causing the fish-eaters to go “crazy like dogs” and try to bite the passerby... Fortunately, the runner escaped, but the water weasels set their sights on Spencer, who believed they’d mistook him for the runner. The ornery otters reportedly hit him in the ankles, pushed him down and leaped on top of Spencer, then proceeded to bite the prone man around his...

The adorable animal, a resident of Monterey Bay Aquarium, was filmed playing a super-fun game we'll call "hide the shrimp." INTRODUCING "THE SHRIMP GAME": How do you describe a hot new game to a friend? Do you start with the rules? The game's aim? How does it feel to play it? The quirks, twists, and surprises you can expect? There's a lot that goes into breaking down the specifics of a fresh challenge, but sometimes you just have to jump in, (webbed) feet first, and move a shrimp around, all to create something cute and fun. Oh, did we say...

A state known as The Last Frontier, partly due to its robust wildlife, is facing an unexpected menace. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game recently released a warning to Anchorage residents to stay alert around local lakes and rivers after incidents of group otter attacks. According to the department, on Sept. 1, a group of four river otters bit a child near Lake Otis. A few weeks later, officials received reports about a group of river otters chasing after a pet dog and biting the canine's owner near University Lake. On the same day at the same lake, an...

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) urges Anchorage residents to be alert around local lakes and rivers, where a group of river otters recently attacked people and their pets. On September 1, a child was chased and bitten by a group of four river otters near Dowling and Lake Otis. This week another woman was bitten while rescuing her dog from a similar group of river otters at University Lake. A second report of an otter attacking a dog was received on the same day from a different area of the lake. River otter attacks in Anchorage, while...

Staff at the Church of Saint Teresa were shocked on Monday morning (May 24) when they discovered numerous dead fish scattered around the compound. They soon discovered that this was the work of a family of otters. In a video clip Shin Min Daily News posted on Facebook, the remains of dozens of koi - some with their heads or tails bitten off - were seen lying on the ground near one of the compound's two ponds. Several otters swam in the pond while a few ran away from the person filming them. Talk to your local Schwab branch to...

Even otters are finding love on the Internet. It’s becoming more and more common for couples to meet each other through online dating apps, especially during the pandemic. Such services have apparently become so successful at making love connections that even otters are getting set up online. When one of its male otters named Harris lost his mate, workers at the Cornish Seal Sanctuary in Gweek, England, used a dating app made specifically for otters to find him a new mate, according to a press release from the Sea Life Scarborough Sanctuary. That sanctuary is home to Pumpkin, a female...

A total of 10 expensive koi fish have now been killed and eaten by the otter as of Sunday morning; there were previously 14 adult koi living in the ponds at Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Park in Chinatown. As a result, staff at the Chinatown park have begun evacuating koi from the park’s ponds. On Saturday, crews moved in to begin rescue efforts. So far, only one fish has been moved to the Vancouver Aquarium for safekeeping; koi are also difficult to capture so it remains unclear how long the evacuation will take though crews are working to relocate the remaining...

Millions of years ago, a wolf-sized otter swam around ancient swampy China, scientists have discovered. The huge otter would have weighed about 110 pounds, and lived about 6.24 million years ago, according to a new report. The fossilized remains of this now-extinct ancient otter— one of the largest otters known— were discovered in a mine in China’s Yunnan Province, and part of what makes it remarkable is that the find included a nearly-complete cranium.

It's wild times in the watershed. The most happy-go-lucky denizen of Bay Area creeks is back, after a hiatus of at least three decades: the river otter. "They look like they're having a wonderful time out there. It's really exciting to see," said Steve Bobzien, a wildlife ecologist for the East Bay Regional Park District. "Plus, it's a really good biological indicator of the health of the ecosystem." From Antioch to Tomales Bay, park visitors have reported otters rolling in mud, gnawing on crayfish, sliding down rocks and generally partying on the creek banks. A Marin group has even created...

It looks as though these two may have carelessly fallen into a pot of white paint. In fact, they are an extremely rare pair of albino otter cubs which are the first to have been born in captivity in Britain. Keepers could not believe their eyes when the uncommonly pale creatures were born at the Blue Planet Aquarium in Cheshire. The pair are part of a litter of three baby Asian short-claw otters born at the end of March. But it was only when they started appearing outside their 'holt' that their unusual colouring was spotted.

Two elderly otters who were best friends and lived side-by-side for 15 years have both died of a heart attack within an hour of each other. It's thought the second heartbroken animal passed away from the stress of watching his mate die. Daz and Chip – both male – lived and died at Naturelands Zoo in Nelson, New Zealand.

Columbus-Bound Flight Delayed By Otters Wednesday, December 23, 2009 6:23 AM Updated: Wednesday, December 23, 2009 7:10 AM Video Print Story E-mail Story COLUMBUS, Ohio — A Continental Airlines flight from Houston to Columbus was delayed for more than an hour Tuesday night after otters making the trip in the plane's cargo hold escaped their cages and made a break for freedom. The otters were apparently being unloaded from the plane in Houston when they managed to get loose. "People thought it was a joke at first, I think," a passenger said. Another passenger said an otter made its way...

An extra-cold winter on the Alaska Peninsula has frozen sea otters out of the bay and pushed them onto the tundra near Port Heiden where they're easy prey for wolves, humans and hunger. Some of the starving animals -- with ribs showing -- have waddled or belly-slid several miles inland, residents said. Others have been attacked by dogs near houses, killed by villagers for their hides, or died on sea ice where eagles and foxes pick at their remains. No one knows how many have come ashore in the unusual exodus, said Mark Kosbruk, village fire chief. Natives have skinned...

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. - Greg Sanders' otter-catching days are over. It's been years since he last snatched the animals from Southern California waters and shipped them north under an ambitious federal program to preserve an endangered species while protecting shellfish divers from natural competition. Now, in an admission that the slick-furred creatures refuse to respect boundaries imposed by man, the federal government wants officially to abandon an otter-relocation policy it effectively dumped more than a decade ago. If the government's battle of wits is at its end, the otters have won. "This concept of taking animals and putting them in...

Tourist Otters Confused by Accent Wed Jul 3, 8:31 AM ET LONDON (Reuters) - Two Canadian otters at a sanctuary in Scotland have been placed under 24-hour protection from aggressive local otters who are confused by their "foreign accents," a newspaper reported Wednesday. The National Sea Life Sanctuary in Oban has installed an electric fence and surveillance cameras to protect its Canadian guests, Fingal and Sula, according to The Independent. Though almost twice the size of their wild Scottish relatives, the pair are disadvantaged by their foreign accents and scent. "Dialects are common in animal communications, but because of the...