The other great animal encounter my daughter and I had in Monterey, California, earlier this month was watching an otter forage for food.

We saw the female otter when we were at the edge of Fisherman’s wharf. She was in the water below the boardwalk, totally oblivious to the people who were watching her.

We were informed that this was a female because of the scarring on the end of her nose. Males bite females there when they are mating — a sad commentary on the male of the species.

At first the otter would dive down to the bottom, then return with a clam and a rock.

She would then float on her back, put the rock on her chest, and pound the clam on the rock until it cracked open and she could get the the tasty morsel inside. She slammed the clam onto the rock so fast, I had to put my camera on burst mode to catch it.

I’d heard of this behavior before, but I’d never seen it, either in photos or in real life. I tried to envision how I would pound a clam open using a rock on my chest, and it just couldn’t work. Among other things we curl up when we slam our arms down. The otter didn’t have to do that to make it work.

Then she dove down and got another clam.

But she soon tired of clams and started bringing up crabs.

The otter would pull off the legs to eat, but discard the body. Below, she’s eating one of the big claws.

A California Gull decided that the otter could provide an opportunity for a free lunch.

Eventually, the gull’s persistence paid off …

… and it came up with the body of the crab discarded by the otter.

By this time the otter had eaten, by my count three clams and the legs of three crabs. And that was just while we were watching. It was sated for the time being and dove out of sight to return to the kelp beds off shore to rest.