Human beings are always known to ill-treat the apex predators such as tigers, wolves, sea otters or leopards. This results in the loss of these predators from nature as well as from the food chain further causing an imbalance on the ecological and economical aspects in the globe.
In rare cases, these predators fully recover after being victimized, but if they return they often lack some tools for assessing the recovery. But, the case of sea otters in Glacier Bay located in Alaska can be considered as a case of an exception.
As written in The Press of Atlantic City, a recent study by a team of researchers at Colorado State University shows that sea otters have returned to the area after being absent for nearly about 250 years. The approach from the scientists utilizes mathematics, statistics and ecology for understanding better the role of these predator animals in the marine ecosystem and the ability for returning to an ecosystem after being absent for so long.
In spite of the fact that not normally saw in an indistinguishable vein from wolves, tigers, and panthers, sea otters are a pinnacle predator of the near shore marine biological community - the limited band amongst earthly and maritime living space. Amid the commercial maritime fur trade in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, sea otters were almost chased to eradication over their range in the North Pacific Ocean. By 1911, just a modest bunch of little-secluded populations remained.
The Colorado State University reported that after the time 1911, many areas recovered the population of sea otters with the help of International Fur Seal Treaty which protected the predator from human harvest. Many wildlife agencies also worked for aiding sea otter recolonization. With the increase in abundance and distribution, sea otters made their way to the Glacier Bay in Alaska, the largest marine protected area in the Northern Hemisphere.
As per the research, more than 500 sea otters have been documented in the lower parts of Glacier Bay. Sea otters had extraordinary achievement in the wake of tidewater icy mass withdraw in Glacier Bay. While atmosphere prompted the loss of ocean ice can contrarily influence some colossal pinnacle predators -, for example, polar bears or walruses - different species may profit by the development of recently accessible natural surroundings and prey assets.
