Since moving into the ruins of the historic seaside baths near the Golden Gate Bridge, the furry river otter has gone from mild curiosity to outright celebrity in San Francisco.
"Sutro Sam," as he has been christened by his growing fan base, is believed to be the first river otter to make San Francisco its home in decades.
Since moving in, the otter has drawn a growing crowd of admirers. One looky-loo purchased some trout from a supermarket for the animal, while another encouraged his golden Lab to jump into the pools for a swim with Sutro Sam. And on Twitter, the otter has been described as both "cute" and "adorable."
"As a city otter," said Jouko van der Kruijssen, a graphic designer in San Francisco who first spotted the otter in October, "he has different things to deal with than a normal wild otter."
Though biologists don't know why the whiskered mammal decided upon the old Sutro Baths as his residence, or perhaps his vacation spot, they do know that he appears to be very comfortable in his watery digs.
Since river otters haven't been spotted in the area in recent memory, biologists said they would like to know how the creature got to the oceanfront pools. The otter could have paddled across the mouth of San Francisco Bay from Marin County or hitched a ride as a stowaway in a boat, suggested Megan Isadore, co-founder of the River Otter Ecology Project, which tracks and studies the species in the area.
"It's truly a message of hope," she said. "It shows that when we clean up our water and provide protections for wildlife it can come back, and it does come back."
Biologists believe that river otters once thrived in the area, as they did in coastal waters of the United States and Canada. But development and the fur trade in the 19th and early 20th centuries wiped out much of the population across the nation. In recent years, there hasn't been a concerted effort to document the river otter population in the Bay Area, so not much is known.
"It's kind of untrodden ground," Isadore said.
Volunteers with the nonprofit have gathered the otter's scat with the intention of testing it to find answers about his history, including ? if possible ? where he came from.
Since taking up residence in the ruins about three months ago, the otter has spent his days swimming, sunbathing on the concrete walkways of the pools and scouring the shores for vegetation, perhaps rounding up the material to make a nest for the cool nights.
"He's got everything he needs down there," Isadore said. "He's got food. He's got a place to eat. He's fine."
And he seems to be attracting a crowd. A man who answered at the phone at a nearby visitors center near the baths said that the otter has become a steady draw. Wildlife photographers have taken to documenting the creature on their blogs.
Van der Kruijssen has dutifully returned to the baths every other day to keep an eye on Sutro Sam since discovering the animal in early October. While he was at it, he also signed up as a volunteer with the River Otter Ecology Project.
Although people might feel inclined to try to help the seemingly lonely otter, Isadore cautioned, they need to be mindful that he is, after all, a wild animal.
"If they are approached, they will bite," she said. "They will bite a person and they will bite a dog."
Isadore said she doesn't know how long Sutro Sam will stick around the baths. He might just get lonely and shove off to find a mate in the late winter.
"The only thing he's lacking," she said, "is a female."
nicole.santacruz@latimes.com
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