The Monterey Bay Aquarium has invited Travis Kelce to come for a visit after his pop star girlfriend, Taylor Swift, revealed this week that he has a fascination with the idea of rescuing and befriending sea otters.
During the couple’s viral “New Heights” podcast episode, Kelce fessed up to his love of watching sea otter rescue videos and said he’d even like to meet one in the “wild,” prompting a Monterey Bay Aquarium spokesperson to tell TMZ that they would be happy to send the Kansas City Chiefs tight end more information about these marine mammals.
Isabel Lara pointed out that otters are more than “just cute animals.” Like Kelce “is on the football field, they are important players in marine ecosystems,” she added. She also said that Kelce — and probably Swift, too — would be welcome anytime to visit the four otters who live in the aquarium. According to the world-famous aquarium’s website, these otters were stranded as pups, raised at the aquarium and have become part of its otter habitat exhibit because they can no longer live in the wild.
“We’re so pleased to learn Travis cares about sea otters,” Lara told TMZ, before adding: “We’d be happy to provide more information if he wants to share more about otters on his podcast during Sea Otter Awareness Week from September 21-27.”
Kelce’s otter obsession came up during a discussion with Swift and Jason Kelce, his brother and “New Heights” co-host, about what Swift has been doing with herself since she ended her blockbuster Eras World Tour, which stretched from March 2023 to December 2024. No doubt, Swift has spent some of her time working on her new album, “The Life of a Showgirl,” which she announced on the podcast and which is due for release on Oct. 3.
But Swift also said she has become immersed in cooking and baking, especially different flavors of sourdough bread. She said she had found online communities of people who share her love for baking sourdough loaves.
“This is where the Internet is a good place, where you can curate a reality, where, like, all I really use the internet for is sourdough,” Swift said. She then revealed that Kelce uses the internet find Instagram videos of sea otters.
“I want a wild animal,” Kelce broke in. “I want a wild otter so bad. I just want to, like, find these little creatures.”
Swift herself broke back in to say that Kelce doesn’t want to take an otter out of the wild, as in taking a pup from its mother. Instead, she said he wants to befriend one “whose life he saved.”
“He wants to see an otter, and the otter is, like, ‘My paw is caught in a shell,’ and he’s, like, ‘I got you.’” Swift explained. “And then the otter is, like, ‘thank you forever,’ with its little paws.”
Swift said she envisions them out together kayaking and an otter would swim up to them: “That’s what he wants, and I want it too, honestly. I mean, who doesn’t?”
Unfortunately, a visit by Kelce (and Swift) to the Monterey Bay Aquarium will probably have to wait a few months, or possibly longer, according to TMZ. The Chiefs and other NFL teams have begun pre-season games, with the season officially kicking off Sept. 4. But Kelce could still get acquainted with the aquarium and its otters from afar, especially by tuning in to its Sea Otter Cam. It live streams from the exhibit from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily.
The aquarium says it has has been at the epicenter of sea otter recovery for more than 30 years, saying that those decades of research have revealed the vital role these animals play “in creating resilient coastal ecosystems.”