Sea Otters Hold Hands While Sleeping

As heartwarming as it is to imagine sea otters in love, their hand-holding isn’t a sign of affection. It’s actually a vital mechanism they rely on while they sleep, and the reason they do it is twofold: It helps prevent sea otters from losing track of each other, and it deters potential predators.

When sea otters sleep, water currents may sweep them in any number of directions. By holding onto each other’s paws, they form what’s called a “raft,” which may contain as little as two or as many as several dozen otters. This keeps the group together, lessening the risk of drifting apart while they snooze. And the bigger the raft, the more imposing the group of otters appears, thus making predators less likely to strike than if they were to come upon just a single otter or two.