These sea otters love to nibble on icicles and swim with snow balls

By Brelaun Douglas via SWNS

These adorable sea otters love to nibble on icicles and go swimming with snow balls.

Yaku and Luna get to play with snow and ice as a part of their daily enrichment at the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago, Illinois.

“Ice and snow enrichment gives the otters things to explore, introducing variety and new sensations in their day,” said a rep for the aquarium.

“The ice also provides hydration and the chomping is good for their teeth.”

Between their munching, crunching and spinning with snowballs the cute pair stop to groom their fur, which is the densest of any mammal and keeps them warm instead of blubber.

Yaku was born at the Seattle Aquarium in 2000 and he has been a resident at Shedd since 2001.

Luna was rescued from the brink of death on the rocky California coast when she was just a few days old by the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

After weeks of intensive care she was transferred to Shedd, once it was determined that she couldn’t be returned into the wild.

To keep the sea otters stimulated and give them a sense of their natural habitats, enrichment is frequently incorporated into their lives.

“Enrichment is part of the overall welfare plan for the animals at Shedd, ensuring that the animals stay physically active, mentally stimulated and creating variety so that no two days are ever the same, just like in the wild,” said a rep for the aquarium.

Sea otters, which were once nearly hunted to extinction, are now protected under the Endangered Species Act & Marine Mammal Protection Act.

Yaku, Luna and the other sea otters at the aquarium can be found on the aquarium’s Instagram