Dr. Chris J. Law

Otters.

So females have it rough because basically the moment they become sexually mature, they are either pregnant or have a baby with them or a pup with them until they literally exhaust themselves to death.

And it's called end lactation syndrome for the females where they just basically just die because they're just so exhausted from lactation.

You know, putting so much energy towards their pups or towards milk production.

And they also have to afford for their pups.

And I'll say one thing.

Some of those pups are basically just like little parasites.

I remember just watching a mom and a pup interact.

And this pup is almost bigger than the mom.

And it was still hanging out with mom.

And the moment mom goes diving, the pup just like hangs out on the surface being all cute and happy.

But then when the mom comes up with food, it just immediately swims to the mom and just starts like, you know, crying and begging for food.

And again, this pup is almost bigger than a mom.

Basically, pups usually stay with the mom for six months to up to a year.

And it's usually those slackers that are staying up for a year are usually just as big as the mom, still continually getting food from it.

Uh, so, so yeah, the evolution question, um, I think it's just because that pup will be like nice and fat and ready to kind of go hunt on its own because if it gets weaned too early or it leaves mom too early, it's not going to be able to eat or get enough food and it's just going to die.

And in that case, you're just going to lose your, you know, offspring and your genetic potential, right?

If that happens.

So evolutionarily, you know, there might be that reason for why, uh,

why that pup really wants to extract all the nutrients from the mom before it can go off on its own and do its thing.