Vancouver sea otters a hit on YouTube

A pair of sea otters at the Vancouver Aquarium have become international stars, with more than 1.5 million people watching a video of them on the popular YouTube website in the past two weeks.

Nyack and Milo have become YouTube's top-rated animal video ever.

The video is not new. It wasshot five years ago by a student at the University of B.C. Cynthia Holmes, now a professor in Florida, said she decided to post the video just two weeks ago.

"It's just sort of an interesting phenomenon. Everybody's linked to it. I don't think it's a particularly remarkable video. I think it's cute."

It's not the first time Nyack has been featured on TV. She was one of the few sea otters to survive getting coated with oil during the Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska back in 1989.

She was cleaned up and flown to Vancouver, where she has thrived ever since.

Aquarium officials said they hope the internet audience learns that the otters are not only cute, butare an endangered species as well.