Would there be no sea otters in Chesapeake Bay?

And the sea otters are dying in large numbers from a parasite in cat excrement washed
into Pacific.

On holiday in California four years ago we travelled down Highway One along the coast from San Francisco to Los Angeles and saw sea otters off the Pebble Beach 17 mile drive. They were floating on their backs some 15 metres offshore, too far to see if they had kittens with them (are they kittens, pups or cubs?). Whether we were lucky or this was a common sight there I don’t know. Looking up details later I found that the adult male weighs 70 to 90 pounds and is about 4.5 feet long – rather longer than a European river otter (lutra lutra) and at least twice the weight.

kittens, pups or cubs?

Looking at a couple of sites it looks like pups. And they have only one per gestation.

Dear Faldage,

Pups. Thanks for that. With only one pup in a litter it sounds like a long task to reestablish numbers in a depleted population.

dxb.

With only one pup in a litter it sounds like a long task to reestablish number

If it's any comfort, I think one of the sites I found said they have them twice a year.

a litter of one?

AHD defines litter as the offspring produced at one birth by a multiparous mammal and multiparous as giving birth to more than one offspring at a time. You do the math.

And AHD gives etymology of "litter" as "being influenced by French :lit' = bed.

Litter as a mess is something else, a metaphor from appearance of trashy stuff used as
animal bedding.

more than one offspring at a time

Umm. Obviously not a litter. Thanks for that, its always good to learn something new.

AHD defines ... multiparous as giving birth to more than one offspring at a time.

Obstetrically, we use it to mean more than one instance of giving birth.