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Walruses in Captivity
On an individual basis, rescuing orphaned walrus
calves from the wild is a good way for biologists to learn more about
this species. Five such orphans live at New York's Aquarium for Wildlife
Conservation. The oldest, named Nuka, which means "little sister"
in the Inuit language, is 15 years old. She was found near the town
of Barrow on the northern tip of Alaska. Ten years later, from the same
region, the Aquarium adopted another young walrus, Tiipaq, or "little
girl who came from the country to the city." Three more youngsters,
Ayveq, Uupa, and Kulusiq, were all orphaned as infants when their mothers
were killed during an annual hunt in 1994. "If the mother dies,
the orphan can't be fed, and the baby dies," explained Dr. Hans
Walters, Animal Department Supervisor at the Aquarium.
Uncontrolled oil exploration may endanger walrus habitats. |
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According to Walters, these calves were 120-pound
wrinkly puppies when they arrived. They needed 24-hour care, and had to be bottle-fed
for two years. Now these walruses weigh nearly 1,000 pounds each and eat between
40 and 60 pounds of food a day. Besides providing the right diet for these large
carnivores, Walters said the biggest challenge is keeping the animals mentally
stimulated. "In the wild, they would spend almost their entire waking time
looking for food," he explained. The keepers train the walruses to fetch
and wave, which are fun activities, but which also serve a purpose. "The
presenting of the foot and open mouth is basically a veterinary exam," said
Walters. "It's a simple way of looking at the animal to make sure its mouth
is okay and the flipper is okay." However, Walters admitted that the walrus
wave is a real crowd-pleaser as well.
Besides
the occasional polar bear or killer whale preying on young or injured
walruses, humans are their most common predators. While the Eskimos, Indians,
and Aleuts hunt these marine mammals, they are allowed to do so on a subsistence
level, although the allowed catch varies internationally. Commercial hunting
of walruses was outlawed by Canada in 1930. Later, as wild populations
declined dramatically, the United States, Greenland, and Russia joined
in. The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES)
listed the Pacific walrus in its Appendix III in 1975. However, hunting
is not the main threat to wild walrus populations: uncontrolled oil exploration
in the Arctic region may have farther-reaching effects on their habitat.
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