Mari, now around five months old, was transported on a private Leer jet to her new home at Chicago's John G. Shedd aquarium Sept. 4.

And last Wednesday she was placed in the aquarium's sea otter habitat for the first time since she arrived.

"You kind of introduce them real slow because they're sort of fragile animals," said Tim Lebling, one of the rehabilitation technicians who cared for Mari when she was brought to the Seward Sea Life Center in July. "It's a case by case basis."

Lebling has plans to visit Mari in February when he is in the Midwest for a conference and if past experience is any way to judge, it should be a touching reunion.

Earlier this year, when he visited Calypso, another sea otter pup rescued around the same time as Mari, Lebling said, she recognized him right away.

It is common, he said, for sea otters to grow attached to the humans who care for them.

In Mari and Calypso's cases, Lebling said, caring for the two baby otters was like having twins.

"With two of them it's non-stop," he said.

Sea otters in particular require round-the-clock feeding and attention.

So, for the nearly two months the two otters were living at the center, Lebling said he frequently spent every waking and sometimes sleeping hour with the girls.

"You spend so much time, intense time with them you definitely become attached," he said.

But the center doesn't have habitat suitable for sea otters in fact there are only eight facilities in the United States can house them so Calypso and Mari had to leave the state to find a suitable home.

Calypso is living in Seattle and, Lebling said, a pregnant otter has taken the younger Calypson under her care.

Mari is in Chicago. Her trainers will continue to gradually introduce her to the aquarium until she is completely comfortable in the new surroundings.

Lebling has high hopes.

Mari, he said, was healthy when she was rescued by kayakers who found her wet, alone and squealing. And, during her time in Seward she flourished.

While things are going well for Mari, Lebling said, her rescue was an educational experience.

The Sea Life Center typically tells people to observe sea otter pups for two hours before assuming they have been abandoned.

The two-hour window is important because if they are left alone any longer, like Calypso was, the infants can become dehydrated and lose weight quickly.

Taking them out of their habitat too soon, though, also isn't advised. In Mari's case, Lebling said, he isn't convinced she had been abandoned.

But, once the sea otter is taken out of the water and transported to a facility like the one in Seward an irreversible chain of events has begun.

Sea otter pups, unlike seals, can never be reintroduced to their natural habitat.

Life at an aquarium is the fate for all rescued sea otters.

Seldovia and Homer are the source of the majority of sea otters that end up in Seward.

"It's a combination of there's more people and there's a large population of sea otters there," Lebling said.

Because so many otters are found in this region, a team from the ALSC will be in Homer Jan. 9 and 10 to hold a training session for community members who want to form a volunteer group who will respond to reports of stranded otters.

To report a sea otter in need of intervention, call the ALSC hotline at 888-774-SEAL.