Photo: Otter mom serves and protects

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• Baby sea otter found in Cayucos has new home at Chicago aquarium

  Baby sea otter found in Cayucos has new home at Chicago aquarium

  Chicago's Shedd Aquarium is now home to an orphaned baby sea otter from California.

• Elephant Seal News: Peak time for elephant seal activity at Piedras Blancas

  Elephant Seal News: Peak time for elephant seal activity at Piedras Blancas

  The new year brings a new generation of elephant seals to the viewing site at Piedras Blancas and, with it, action and drama in Mother Nature’s sand opera. This is the peak of the season. The beaches are nearly covered with mothers and pups. The first pups were born in mid-December, and the pups nurse for about a month. The mother goes into estrus near the end of the nursing period, and so the mating season has now begun.

  By the time this column comes out, most of the birthing will be over, but there may be a few pregnant females left to deliver. As mothers nurse their pups, they also squabble over space and pups. For the onlooker, it’s sometimes hard to watch nature take its course as pups and moms become confused, pups appear abandoned, or a mother steals another’s pup. When all goes well, it’s fun to watch the cute pups.

  The males, on the other hand, offer a different kind of show. A huge alpha male may have up to 40 females and pups in his harem, and he’s been waiting for the mating season to start

• Sea otters may be given room to roam in San Luis Obispo County

  Sea otters may be given room to roam in San Luis Obispo County

  The southern sea otter, plentiful in the waters off San Luis Obispo County, could return to the Southern California coast under a proposal by federal wildlife officials.

  They are seeking to end a controversial and unsuccessful program to keep otters out of Southern California waters.

  The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service plans to formally end its sea otter translocation program nearly 20 years after it was abandoned. A study by the agency found that the program was not working and the otter population would be better served by allowing them to expand their range southward, said Ren Lohoefener, director of the Fish and Wildlife Service’s Southwest region.

• Photo: Dogs end season with a splash

  Photo: Dogs end season with a splash

  Playful pups jumped and splashed into the cool blue water at Templeton Community Pool on Friday during Parks-4-Pups’ fourth annual Splash Days.

  The event marks the end of summer swim for people by opening the pool up for dogs. The pool is then drained for the fall.

  Admission is $20 for all dogs, with reservations made by the hour from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. today and Sunday. Proof of current rabies vaccination is required. No unneutered adult dogs and no puppies younger than 4 months are allowed.

• Talks honor memory of Paso Robles woman

  Talks honor memory of Paso Robles woman

  When Paso Robles couple Bob and Susan Mahoney heard national speaker Brent Nixon’s talk on animals this past summer, they knew he could carry on the memory of their late daughter, Marisa Lewis.

  “We thought we had to get him down here to the schools and give the kids a sense of what my daughter loved,” a tearful Bob Mahoney said.

  Lewis died of skin cancer in December 2010. She was 35 years old and a Paso Robles wife and mother of two.