Sea otter shows off oyster-shucking skills at Oregon Zoo

PORTLAND, Ore. - An adorable southern sea otter named Uni Sushi who lives at the Oregon Zoo demonstrated her considerably brutal oyster-shucking technique this week.

The zoo shared a video showing the otter holding an oyster shell in her paws and smacking it on the stone edge of the otter pool. 

"Sushi had a crunchy shellebration," a staff member/comedian at the zoo wrote in the post.

After Sushi devoured the oyster, a zookeeper tossed her a mussel and a clam, which she also promptly cracked open and slurped down.

Sushi was just a pup when she was stranded on a beach near Santa Cruz, California, in 2018 and has to be rescued. The zoo's marine mammal team named her Uni Sushi "in honor of the diet of sustainable seafood she and the rest of the sea otter family enjoy," according to the zoo's website. "Uni" is the Japanese word for sea urchin.

In the wild, sea otters live in shallow coastal waters, usually around kelp forests, according to NOAA's National Marine Sanctuaries. They eat various invertebrates, including sea snails, crabs, octopuses, urchins, and more. Because otters lack blubber, they burn calories fast and need to consume as much as a quarter of their body weight in food a day, according to NOAA.

This story was produced in New York City with Storyful.

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