51�Թ�

A family of otters opens one such box, which turns out to be Roz, Brown’s wild robot.

Though theoretically humans may have genetic science down that we could rescue any imperiled species, from sea otters to monarch butterflies, this has yet to be fully demonstrated.

On California’s North Coast, where other urchin nemeses — like otters, spiny lobsters and sheephead — are lacking, 96% of the region’s kelp forests vanished in the decade following the sea star collapse.

"When we realised an otter was outside they all rushed out to see, it was snacking on my husband's latest catch," she said.

They look like a cross between an otter and a gopher but they taste something like a rabbit or dark meat from turkey.