By Jeddy Yu
The U.S are finding a way to revive otters after the U.S was testing nuclear weapons during 1969 to 1971. The target was Alaska’s Aleutian Island, a place where otters lived. Conservation centers brought otters away to Oregon and Washington State so that they would not be harmed in the testing. However, a new problem arrived when fur traders hunted these otters, almost to extinction. The Oregon otters disappeared, making the biologists very confused. There were hypotheses that they died or swam away. But research shows that the otters swam away to the Oregon coast. The biologists collected otter teeth from northern Oregon to extract genetic sequences. The biologists also scraped the otters teeth. They took DNA from the teeth, they hoped that they could interbreed the otters to hopefully “bring back the otters from the dead”. This could all be hopefully solved in a couple years.
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