Day 7 - Recording and Transcribing Observation Data

We record data each day throughout our observation of the Monterey marine mammals. At the end of the day, we transcribe the recorded data and photo ID into the computer log to save and create an excel spreadsheet with GIS (geographic information system). This data is extremely important to our PI, the principal investigator, Dr. Daniela Maldini. It is through the data that she can see consistant patterns in behavior, habitat, feeding, social patterns of interaction, and their daily movements. The data gives necessary information to better understand these animals.
A little trivia about sea otters is that they eat 15 pounds of food daily, which is 25% of their body weight.
Today, I selected a specific sea otter for the focal study, to observe for several hours around sunset; we will call her Ophelia. I observed her interaction/ socialization with other sea otters, times of travel, her grooming, foraging/ feeding, and resting. She played with other otters for nearly one hour, groomed her grizzled fur off and on throughout the observation. At one point, I could see that Ophelia became very tired and began to drift away from the otter raft (composed of a close-knit group of otters). She went into a rest position, floating over to a small shore, close to the mouth of Elkhorn Slough. She beached herself and wiggled onto shore; resting for over a half hour before returning to the otter raft in the early evening. At this point, I had to end the data collection for another day; returning to our computer to enter the information into an excel program. This is a long term study and will take several years to better understand the sea otter dynamics at Elkhorn Slough and the Monterey Bay.