There’s nothing like a cuddle with a walrus
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Everybody needs a shoulder to lean on now and then. A walrus calf at the Alaska SeaLife Center in Seward, Alaska, is getting one 24 hours per day.
Trained staff members, working in pairs, are touching, massaging and cuddling a calf all day and all night as part of its recuperation. The calf, estimated to be about six weeks old, was found last month without its mother several kilometres outside Nome.
Walrus are highly social and spend two years with their mothers, said Jennifer Gibbins, communications director for the centre.
“They need constant contact,” Gibbins said. “Part of the caregiving is providing that constant contact and tactile interaction.
The calf was spotted in midJune on the deck of a mining barge. The walrus was still on the barge the next morning and the crew summoned wildlife experts.
The SeaLife Center is dedicated to marine research and education and features a public aquarium. It’s the only facility in Alaska that holds a permit for marine mammal rescue and rehabilitation.
When the calf reached Seward on June 17, it weighed 54 kilograms and was extremely lethargic “He was severely dehydrated,” Gibbins said. “That was really the first concern.”
The calf initially was fed with a tube down its throat that sent food directly to the stomach. It was considered a hopeful sign when the animal began bottle feeding about a week later.
The calf now sucks down up to a litre of formula seven times per day. As the calf rehydrated and recuperated, he became more active, curious and plump. He now weighs 65 kilograms.
“That’s a pretty dramatic change in a short time,” Gibbins said.
The cuddling is critical, Gibbins said. “One of the unique things about walrus is that there is a very high level of maternal investment with a calf,” she said. “They are with their moms for two years in the wild.”
Twenty staff members have been trained to be with the little guy. He leans on them and sometimes lies on them. Sometimes he sucks their arms. Gibbins calls it nursing behaviour.
“An infant human might be sucking on your fingers. That’s what they’re doing,” she said.
Walrus have practical reasons for refined touching. They use their hundreds of short, highly sensitive whiskers to search for clams and other seafood on the ocean floor, according to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.