Little Smarties

​River otters at a Northern California lagoon have learned to climb onto resting brown pelicans, grab them by the neck, drag them underwater, and hold them there until they drown. The behavior was first documented in 2006. By 2024 the otters were taking multiple pelicans in a single hunt. Abbotts Lagoon sits inside Point Reyes National Seashore, an hour north of San Francisco. It is a shallow coastal lagoon where brown pelicans raft on the surface between fishing runs, floating with their wings folded, dozing in loose groups. River otters live in the same water, hunting fish, crabs, and waterbirds year-round. At some point before 2006, the otters at Abbotts Lagoon and the nearby Rodeo Lagoon in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area figured out that a resting pelican on flat water is a target. A river otter weighs roughly 20 pounds. A brown pelican weighs seven to eight pounds but carries a wingspan of over six feet. The otter is heavier. The pelican is dramatically larger in…