Rosa, the Monterey Bay Aquarium's oldest sea otter and one of its social media stars, died Wednesday, the aquarium said in a statement.
The 24-year-old southern sea otter had served as a surrogate mother to 15 otters, the most in the aquarium's history. She outlived the lifespan of her species in the wild, which is typically 15 to 20 years, according to an aquarium Facebook post.
Rosa was known for her blonde head and “her signature style of swimming with her head back,” the aquarium wrote.
“Rosa was one of our most playful sea otters, and even at 24 years old, she was still seen frolicking and wrestling with the younger otters when she instigated it,” said Melanie Oerter, curator of mammals.
“Rosa would usually be found sleeping against the window while on display with her chin tucked into her chest and her tail wagging back and forth,” he said.
She first arrived as a “five-pound, four-week-old cub after being orphaned in September 1999,” and was released into the wild for several years, according to a page about Rosa on the aquarium's website. She returned to the Monterey Bay Aquarium in 2002 after experts determined that she had become too accustomed to humans and was unsuitable for life in the wild.
In recent weeks, Rosa's health deteriorated and the aquarium experts decided to euthanize her. She “died peacefully, surrounded by her caregivers,” according to the aquarium's publication.
In the post, the aquarium called Rosa a “charismatic ambassador for its threatened species” who played “a leading role in the story of the sea otter's recovery from near-extinction during the fur trade.”
