PART II 
SEA OTTER TRANSPLANT FROM 
AMCHITKA ISLAND TO THE PRIBILOFS IN 1959 
The purposes of this report are (1) to summarize attempts to 
hold sea otters in captivity and to transplant them, (2) to give 
information about the requirements of captive sea otters while await- 
ing transplant, and their requirements during transportation if they 
are to be liberated in condition to survive, (3) to give an account 
of the, successful 1959 transplant to the Pribilof Islands, and (4) 
to discuss the possibility of future transplants. 
HISTORY OF TRANSPLANT ATTEMPTS 
Period 1950 to 1955 
The first transplant of sea otters was to have taken place in the 
winter of 1950-51. Refuge Manager Robert D. Jones of the Aleutian 
Islands National Wildlife Refuge and a crew of men went to Amchitka 
Island aboard the Fish and Wildlife Service vessel Brown Bear. A camp 
was established at Crown Reefer Point and in March 1951 at least 35 
otters were captured on tidal rocks. An attempt to hold these animals 
in shallow mud-bottomed lakes was unsuccessful. All died within a 
few hours or a few days after capture. 
In February 1954, Drs. Donald Stullken and Charles M. Kirkpatrick 
in company with Fish and Wildlife Service employees visited Amchitka. 
Considerable information about the physiology of sea otters and their 
behavior in captivity was obtained (Stullken and Kirkpatrick, 1955; 
Kirkpatrick et al., 1955). Otters were kept experimentally in two ways: 
(1) in a large wooden tank of water (fig. 1) and, (2) in an abandoned 
house where dry grass was used as bedding. All animals placed in the 
tank showed symptoms of shock and exposure and died within a few hours 
or a few days. Of those kept on dry bedding, three survived and were 
brought to Seattle in June 1954. Subsequently, when shipped to the 
National Zoological Park in Washington, D. C., and placed in a small 
inside pool, all died within a week. 
Between 28 March and 4 April 1955, 31 otters were captured on 
Amchitka. On 9 April the 19 survivors were liberated at Otter Island 
in the Pribilof group. Three succumbed within a few minutes after 
being placed in cold water among ice floes. These otters had been 
carried from Amchitka to the Pribilofs aboard the chartered fishing 
vessel Paragon and were bedded on straw (fig.2) during the trip. 
Their fur became matted with filth, and when liberated each animal 
left a dirty brown trail in the water. Three of these near death were 
recaptured and were found to be soaked to the skin and rigid with cold. 
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