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The otter wouldn’t let go the end of the surfboard. The surfer, who was trying to spend his Sunday riding the waves near Santa Cruz, Calif., rocked the board back and forth, trying to nudge the furry thief away.

It didn’t work. The otter made its move, leaping onto the deck. The surfer backstroked away. The board, for a brief moment, belonged to the otter.

An otter stealing surfboards along the central Californian coast this summer has gone viral, with videos and pictures of the adorable marine mammal hanging 10 inspiring oohs and ahs across the world.

“It is cute. I can’t deny that. I don’t want to be the fun police,” said Kevin Connor, a spokesman for the Monterey Bay Aquarium. But the videos, he added, show an animal that is “missing some of her really critical survival instincts.”

Animals like this otter that have no qualms about being near people often do so after getting a meal from them. But too many of those seeming acts of generosity, though, can endanger a species if it stops foraging for food on its own.

Encounters between people and otters are rare. Most of the marine mammals have an innate aversion to humans and are usually more interested in the crabs and sea urchins they eat off the ocean floor.

There are only about 3,000 <a href="https://www.fws.gov/species/southern-sea-otter-enhydra-lutris-nereis" target=_blank>southern sea otters</a> left in central California, down from the tens of thousands that once ranged all the way down to Mexico before fur hunters nearly killed them off.

Once written off as extinct, the population would have disappeared for good had a raft of a few dozen not eluded the slaughter off the rocky coast of Big Sur. Today the otter is protected under the Endangered Species Act, with federal wildlife managers considering expanding their range into Northern California and Oregon. The furry predator is key to maintaining healthy kelp forest ecosystems off the coast.

As the otters recover, they now find themselves in waters populated by swimmers, paddleboarders and surfers.

After being fed by people, the surfing otter′s mother started approaching kayakers in 2018. Once wildlife managers captured the brash female, they realized it was pregnant.

That otter’s pup, which was dubbed Otter 841 by wildlife managers, was raised at the Monterey Bay Aquarium and released in 2020. Wildlife managers took precautions to prevent it from getting used to humans, wearing face shields and ponchos to obscure the human form while interacting with it.

For a while, 841 appeared to lead a normal otter-y life in the wild. But it soon it began to approach people in the water, like its mother. “We don’t know the exact cause of the behavior,” Connor said. But he added that its conduct is consistent with that of an animal that has been fed.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which manages southern sea otters, said aggressive behavior like this is sometimes caused by hormonal surges as well. For now, the agency advised the public to keep away from the otter.

“While there have been no confirmed reports of injury, due to the highly unusual behavior of this otter, kayakers, surfers, and others recreating in the area should not approach the otter or encourage the otter’s interactions,” agency spokeswoman Ashley McConnell wrote in an email.

At first, wildlife officials tried hazing 841 to deter the atypical behavior. But now a team of government and aquarium officials are trying to recapture the otter, and find it a new home.

If the otter ends up on exhibit at an aquarium, Connor said, “she’ll go on to do more for her species by being an ambassador.”

An aquarium is one of the few places where it is fine to get an up close look at an otter and appreciate it.

Columbia University, BA in economics and political science

Columbia University, MA in science journalism

Dino Grandoni is a reporter covering wildlife, biodiversity and other climate and environmental issues. He is the author of Animalia, a column exploring the strange and fascinating world of animals.