Sea Otter Pup Learns to Swim, Steals the Hearts of the Web

A tiny new resident of the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago has been getting a lot of online attention recently. Her name is Pup 681 and he is an orphaned Southern sea otter.

The aquarium posted a video to YouTube documenting the arrival of the little guy to their facility. Then, the team got to work on the first task toward Pup 681's rehabilitation, teaching her to swim.

It might look like fun, but the folks at Shedd have a pretty hard task at hand with Pup 681. Tim Binder, who is the vice president of animal collections for the aquarium, said of the process, "It truly takes a village to rehabilitate a young sea otter. Our animal care team is teaching the pup how to be an otter."

The 5-week-old pup was found abandoned and alone on Sept. 30 when a jogger heard her crying on Coastways Beach on the Central Coast of California. Pup 681 is still on a strict diet of bottled formula and sliced clams. (Delicious!) Eventually the adorable otter will be named and moved to the facility's Regenstein Sea Otter Nursery. From the looks of it, the she seems to be in good hands with the folks at Shedd.