Snapshots of life in the Golden State. : Otter Crime Wave Surfaces: Sex, Violence, Hostages

In the first long-range study of those adorable sea otters, a research team at the Monterey Bay Aquarium has found that cute is only skin-deep. The 10,000 hours of work--the first long-range study of sea otter behavior, says the Contra Costa Times--found, among other things, a domestic crime wave atop the waves.

Females are sometimes killed when males bite them on the nose during mating to keep from slip-sliding away; one male drowned a female by holding her under water for about 20 minutes.

And, says researcher Marianne Riedman, males sometimes take otter pups hostage rather than do an honest day’s fishing. After a mother otter dives for food, a male grabs a pup. When the mother resurfaces with the groceries, she sees the hostage crisis, drops the food and heads for the pup. The male otter frees his hostage, and swipes the morsel the mother had dropped.

Something must be done: Three strikes, and you’re off the threatened-species list.

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Bon voyage: Just in time to help you get your mind off the slew of natural disasters. . . . Gov. Pete Wilson has declared February “Cruise Vacation Month.” He would like to promote coastal tourism, but right now a slow boat to China sounds more restful than California’s ports of call.

Wilson’s own travels have taken him to Minneapolis, Chicago, Dallas and New York of late--not to mention those reconnaissance rides over Epicenter South--and to the National Governors’ Assn. meeting in Washington, where his old Senate colleague, Arkansas Democrat Dale Bumpers, twitted Wilson that the way things are going in California, Bumpers would bet Wilson wishes he were back in the Senate.

California’s Highs and Lows

Perhaps because of its active seismic history, California is home to both the highest and the lowest elevations in the contiguous 48 states.

* Highest: Mt. Whitney, with a summit of 14,495 feet, is the highest point in California and the continental United States. Alaska’s Mt. McKinley, at 20,320 feet, is the highest in North America. Mt. Whitney is in Sequoia National Park, on the border of Inyo and Tulare counties. The first recorded ascent of its summit was by local fishermen in August, 1873.

* Lowest: A long and irregularly shaped shallow pond of brackish water in Death Valley, named Badwater, is North America’s lowest spot, at 282 feet below sea level. Badwater is in Inyo County, less than 80 miles from Mt. Whitney. Known to the Panamint Indians, it was named by prospectors who entered it as a shortcut to the gold mines in December, 1849.

Source: “A Companion to California” by James D. Hart

Compiled by Times researcher TRACY THOMAS

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It’s not easy being Brown: As his sister’s political trajectory rises, former Gov. Edmund G. (Jerry) Brown Jr. has gone into a different orbit altogether. Brown’s two-hour show on the Talk America radio network began this week. But the two-time presidential candidate, the son of Gov. Edmund G. (Pat) Brown Sr. and brother of gubernatorial hopeful Kathleen Brown, may already have found that life on the other side of the microphone isn’t all it’s cracked up to be: The former governor (whose second term was marred by a fracas over aerial Medfly spraying) got modest second billing for Saturday’s Farm Conference in Ventura--after a deputy agriculture secretary.

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Rush cuts: In Santa Cruz, home of the fighting banana slugs, Bookshop Santa Cruz sold Rush Limbaugh’s latest tome for $8.40--the identical per-pound price as the equivalent amount of baloney, which shop owner Neal Coonerty judged it to be. The beauty part for Coonerty was tacking on $7.30 for the local AIDS fund and another $7.30 for the town’s National Organization for Women chapter--neither of them a Limbaugh cause--to bring each book up to the cover price of $23. Limbaugh ridiculed them on the air, a few fans stomped in to complain, and the sales mounted. Donation checks, for $978.15 each, are in the mail, and Coonerty was satisfied: “They’re going to get more out of the sales of his book than he will.”

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Hoof and mouth: We told you some months ago that underwater explorer Jacques Cousteau was not amused at a Sonoma County billboard showing a local dairy’s mascot, Clo the Cow, decked out as “Jacques Cowsteau” in diving togs, pointing the way to Marine World. The Gallic Neptune of the Seven Seas sued the milk company in federal court, and Cousteau and Clover-Stornetta Farms settled this week. The dairy donated money to the Cousteau Society and apologized for “any embarrassment, misunderstanding or public confusion” it may have caused. Remember, France is a country that considers Jerry Lewis movies the pinnacle of American wit.

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Script doctor! Jan. 14, 1992: Democratic state Treasurer Kathleen Brown, dousing cold water on rosy economic projections: “I feel a little bit like a skunk at a garden party.”

February 1, 1994: Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach), dousing cold water on earthquake assistance and other government aid for illegal immigrants: “I hate to be the skunk at the lawn party here.”

EXIT LINE

“You folks have a hell of a deal out there for 50 bucks. And then you complain about the soap?”

--Imperial County Supervisor Dean Shores, about complaints by some Canadian visitors who park their RVs during the winter at Hot Springs Long Term Visitors Area for $50. The group was upset when the Bureau of Land Management began enforcing its no soap rule in a shower next to the geothermal springs; soap can clog a nearby pond and contaminate the wildlife habitat.

California Dateline appears every other Friday.