My name is Christy, and we are doing a Facebook Live today in the sea otter area, because today is one of our sea otters birthday.

We're going to introduce you to Yaku in just a minute.

But as we go along with this live, please throw some questions if you have them in the chat.

And let's let's see him.

One moment.

Here he is.

So as I mentioned, this is Yaku.

He is our oldest sea otter here at Shedd Aquarium, and he is 21 years old today.

So that's pretty awesome, because out in the natural area where they would be found, sea otters would live possibly to mid teens to earlier 20s.

So the fact that Yaku is 21, we're pretty proud of that.

He's doing so good.

If you can see him, he's pretty large.

He's working with one of our other animal care staff, Katie, and he is having just a tiny bit of a training session right now.

But we've got lots of treats and things planned in just a moment.

So a little background about Yaku.

He was actually born at the Seattle Aquarium.

So all of our other sea otters, we have four other otters here at Shedd Aquarium, they were all, they came to Shedd as rescued sea otters, whereas Yaku was born at the Seattle Aquarium.

Now Yaku's parents were rescued otters, one from a local rescue and one was from the Axon Veldez oil spill.

So he's got some parents that had that situation.

Katie's feeding them to his mouth.

I don't know if you're able to get a peek at those teeth.

He's got some big teeth, some sharp molars.

Fun fact about sea otters is that they have the bite force of a black bear.

So while they look cute and cuddly and adorable, they can be potentially dangerous.

But those sharp molars and strong jaws really help them open some shellfish, and we're going to get to see that in just a little bit.

So some things that make Yaku special.

As I mentioned, he is our oldest male here at the Shedd Aquarium.

He's over 70 pounds, I think he's just around like 68 or so.

So he's a big guy, that is for sure.

And he has been here, like I said, he came when he was very young, so he has spent most of his life here at Shedd Aquarium.

In his older age, he's a pretty docile animal.

You can usually find Yaku curled up in some kelp on our exhibit, taking a nap.

So he definitely likes to relax and take it easy.

Hi, say hi to your viewers.

I just saw a question, what is Yaku's favorite food?

Well, first I'll tell you everything he's eating, and then we'll talk about his favorite food.

So Yaku is eating a lot of food.

Otters eat a lot.

They eat about 20 to 25 percent of their body weight every day.

He's munching on some shrimp right now.

He also eats some clam, there we go.

Pollock, capelin, and squid as well.

Now the question was, does he have a favorite food?

And Yaku is not picky.

Yaku eats it all.

I would say clam is a favorite for many of our sea otters, but we don't see any strong preference.

He is very attentive, and I love showing off his size.

I don't know if you guys can notice up top, he's got these dexterous, really dexterous paws that help him manipulate shells and help him grab onto his food.

And then if you see down below, he's got flippers, and that's what helps him swim really well in the water.

So otters have really cool adaptations and fun little body.

In just a moment, we're going to be bringing some of Yaku's roommates, and we're going to see some of our younger otters that have been at Shed recently, and that is our youngsters Cooper and Watson.

If you have followed any of our social media before, you might have noticed some highlights on Cooper and Watson.

Here's some more bud.

And Cooper and Watson came to Shed almost two years ago, so they are the youngest of the Shed crew.

Now when they come in, I want you to take a peek at the pups' coloration, their size, and other things about them.

As we see Yaku, we can see that he's got a nice white head.

He was a pretty light bird.

There we go.

And that comes with age.

So that comes with age, and I already see one of the little youngsters behind him crashing his face with life.

We'll see you in a second.

Here we go.

Here come the youngsters.

We've got Cooper, who's in the pool right now, and Watson, who is also in the pool.

So these guys, as I mentioned, they're going to be two in May.

Watson here, I'm sorry, Cooper here is on the seat, and one of the ways that we can tell Cooper from Watson is his size.

He's a little bit larger in size, and he's got lighter whiskers.

Hey Watson, there you go.

So let me give you a little backstory on Cooper and Watson.

I told you a little about Yaku.

Oh there we go, we got all three.

I'm going to see if I can get them all in the shot.

It's like taking a family picture.

It's never perfect, but that's okay.

So Cooper and Watson, they were both found as orphaned pups.

Cooper was in really good health, and he was very healthy, so it's unsure if his mother was just away, and they were separated.

Whereas Watson, he was found after a storm, and he was pretty hypothermic and needed medical care.

So we think he was separated in the storm.

Their first step was that they both went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium first, and they've got a really good rehabilitation team there, and then they contacted us at Shed, and the rest is history.

Because they came together, they're pretty close buddies and companions, and they hang out a lot, they play together a lot.

Just like youngsters, they are very active.

Whereas I mentioned Yaku's older and likes to just take it easy.

In just a moment, we're going to give them some shellfish, possibly, because also it's a great way to explain how sea otters are called a keystone species.

Now why is that?

Well, out in their natural habitat, there's sea otters, there are sea urchins, and there are the kelp forests.

Those sea otters eat the sea urchins.

Those sea urchins eat on the kelp forest.

So without otters in the mix in the food chain, those sea urchins would decimate the kelp forest.

So otters are what you call a keystone species.

They're really important to the environment because they keep all everything in a nice balance.

So they, because of sea otters, those kelp forests can thrive.

So right now, we're going to get some treats ready.

Because it is Yaku's birthday, we've got some extra special things.

We've got some shellfish.

We've got some sea urchins.

Hopefully, we can show you.

The pups sometimes eat sea urchins.

And we've got some other treats.

Here we go.

They've already been unloaded.

So right now, Watson is licking off some clam formula that we just froze onto some toys.

It a nice little thing for them to eat.

Here's some sea urchins.

For Cooper, we've noticed that it kind of helps him if we cut them into smaller pieces.

So we've got one of those for him.

I'm going to give him one and see if he's interested.

Hey, bud.

Said maybe later.

That's okay.

Watson is getting formula on his face.

And Yaku is a big fan of some clams.

We're going to watch that in just a moment.

We could watch them all day.

So I told you a little bit about Yaku and how his size is.

And you can probably see, compared to Yaku, Watson looks a lot smaller.

So just for reference, Yaku is just under 70 pounds, whereas Watson's in his mid-30s and Cooper's in his early 40s for pounds.

So they've got a lot of growing to do, but you can definitely see the size difference and you can see that they're a lot darker.

They will lighten up with age as well.

I hear some cracking.

I think Yaku's blocking the shot.

But I think some shellfish opening is occurring.

There we go.

Watson's got a clam.

Sometimes the youngster boys can hog these play sessions.

So I think Yaku's just trying to figure out where's his best spot and what treat he wants to start with.

There we go.

So in addition to some of the shellfish, you might see some other frozen things.

That flower in the pool, that is just some frozen food.

We can freeze it.

It's just a different way to give it to them.

We can add that clam formula to things.

Looks like Cooper found himself a nice little spot to eat this cupcake.

So also, I'm not sure if everybody is aware, but sea otters are an endangered species.

So everybody might think that they're everywhere and anywhere and so plentiful, but they're actually an endangered species.

So if you guys are as passionate about, we are here at Shedd, and you want to see how can you take action for animals, what can you do to play your part?

We have a new initiative started on our website.

It's called Surge.

And if you go to our website, you can sign up for it.

You can be part of newsletters and email groups that will give more guidance in the future.

Yaku's still looking for what is the perfect treat to start with.

Also, just for if you're interested, as I said, my name is Christy.

We're here in the otter area today.

It's Yaku's 21st birthday.

So we're having some play session going on in the hallway.

And for those that are either nearby or planning a trip, here we are open.

Shedd Aquarium is open right now at a limited capacity.

So you can come and see our sea otters out on the public exhibit.

Or if you're interested as well and you're not nearby, we also offer virtual encounters that we do quite frequently, sometimes on the weekends.

And it's a great way to see otters from your very own home.

Cooper is making out big time on this play session today.

All right.

What is Yaku's favorite food?

Yaku's a big fan of all the food types, but he does enjoy the occasional formula treat.

I have seen him open clams pretty frequently.

I don't know if he's camera shy today.

We'll see if he wants one.

You don't like the attention?

It's okay.

He's just checking out whatever else is doing right now.

As you can see, our youngsters, they don't miss a play session.

They get as involved as possible.

What other questions do we have?

Here we go.

Watson's like, come on, man.

It's easy.

So seeing Watson at almost two years old, open a clam, might not seem like anything exciting or special, but it is definitely something that he had to learn here.

Because, you know, he didn't grow up with his mom, like most sea otters do.

So we kind of had to help him.

We would first give Watson a little partially open clam.

Maybe we'd bang it a little bit.

And then pretty soon, he got the hang of it.

I saw a question, who's Yaku's best friend?

So these are all the three males that we have here at Shedd Aquarium.

We also have two females, Kiana and Luna.

And Kiana's an older female as well, still several years younger than Yaku, but she's also a nice, calm companion.

So I would say Yaku's probably closest with Kiana.

He's lived with her the longest, and they kind of have the same energy.

They like to just take naps, lay in an ice pile, possibly.

What games do they like to play?

Evelyn asked.

That's a really good question.

What games do they like to play?

Well, for us on the animal care side, it's our job to make their day exciting.

So we like to give our otters different puzzles, whether it is sinking enrichment, that they have to use that natural diving and foraging skills to do that.

Or we have like a maze that we can have them put a ball and kind of work the ball that has treats in it out.

So take some coordination, definitely take some thinking.

But yeah, we like to give them different ways to have engagement, you know, have puzzles.

Sometimes we hide the food on these play sessions.

Hi sir.

Why do they hit the clam on the ground?

So in their natural habitat, a sea otter might keep a rock in its pocket, a nice little tool to help them crack open that clam.

However, here at Shedd, we don't give them rocks to open things.

They might use that on our glass and our acrylics as well.

So instead, they use the area that they do have.

They use the ground, any hard surface, and they'll use that to open up the shellfish.

They're crafty.