Natural Selection
The sea otter population was very large to start in the 1700s. Due to having from 250,000 to a million hairs per square inch of their body and having their fur be so dense and warm the species population started rapidly decreasing because of hunters. The hunting caused the numbers of sea otters to go down greatly and almost become extinct between the 1800 and 1900s. In 1911 a law was put in to ban the hunting of sea otters because they were very endangered. Since this law was put in place the population started to rise over the next 100 years. The population increased because of natural selection which is survival of the fittest to be able to reproduce. Natural selection played a part in the size growing because they were able to reproduce. Since the male mates with more than one female that also helps the population grow. They are able to reproduce with not as many males alive ehich could help the population grow more. I think that the population will continue to grow because the sea otters are still protected today which means that they do not have a limiting factor and have a better chance of being able to reproduce. This could cause the animals in their ecosystem to decrease in number because there will be more sea otters to be predators to them but it could also be an advantage for the apex predator because it will have more prey to eat.