Enhydra lutris

Status: Endangered Ranging throughout the Pacific, their thick fur has made them a target of hunters for centuries. They are also vulnerable to oil spills, pollution, and in conflict with fisheries. Due to recent conservation efforts, their numbers have rebounded slightly from the extreme low of 1000 individuals in the early 20th century, but they are still at low enough numbers to be endangered.

The Tlingit, an indigenous people of the Pacific Northwest, tell stories of Kushtaka, who are shapeshifting man-otters. When one comes across the Kushtaka, they often appear like any man, and through trickery lure unwary souls astray. Their motivations are inscrutable. In some of the stories, they are malevolent, drawing poor Tlingit to their death in the cold sea or to be lost and alone to freeze. Other times they save a stranded man or woman by turning them into an otter to survive the harsh frozen climate. In some stories they play with a lone traveler‘s perceptions in a wily prank, or steal a woman away from her family for a time, ensorcelled to be a wild creature living under the influence of the Kushtaka, running naked under the starlight, sleeping in the roots of trees, and eating raw salmon, only to be returned months later to her family otherwise unharmed.