Friday, March 08, 2013

Mustachioed babies!

In the One Thing Leads to Another department:

The other day, I posted this photo of a Eastern mud snail,

Nice schnozzle!

... and asked what animal it reminded you of. I suggested a camel/zebra cross, but Upupaepops came up with a walrus. So I had to look up walrus pics on Google. And yes, the snail does look like a walrus. Or a walrus looks like the snail; take your pick.

And I came across this video, which I mentioned in the comments, but it's too good to bury there.

A baby walrus, about 4 weeks old, was found abandoned near Barrow, Alaska.

'Way up there, at the tip, where the marker is. Google maps.

At 4 weeks old, he weighed 200 lbs! He was rescued by the Alaska Sea Life Center, and ... just watch the video. (2:18, but if you're impatient, forward to about 1:30 for the cuddliest baby ever!)



More information:
From ZooBorns, with more photos.
And a follow-up report, from Alaska Sea Life.
He is now in the Indianapolis Zoo.

He looked so awkward, trying to walk on two front flippers and dragging his rear, that I had to see how he operated underwater. And I found another baby video (3:51):

ARKive video - Walrus swimming and suckling young at surface
Video from Arkive. Left-click to open in a new tab. Otherwise, it closes this page.

Very graceful, but those two rear feet (watch for them at 1:43) come as a surprise. The baby nurses, and paddles his mother's belly, like a kitten does. (2:35) Keep on watching to see the parents hugging their child (3:12), just as humans cuddle a baby.

It all makes me wonder; what do walruses think and feel? How like us are they?


4 comments:

  1. Good heavens! The way the adult cuddled the little 'un was amazing. How wonderful.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Walrus have many of the appealing characteristics of Sea Otters, just in a big goofy package.

    there is a great You Tube video out of the Pt Defiance Zoo of their old rescue walrus going through his vocalization repertoire

    ReplyDelete
  3. I wonder if you can rent a baby walrus to cure depression. Permanently.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Upup ... "old rescue walrus". That sounds intriguing. I'll have to go searching for that video.

    Murr, I don't know, but it would sure work!

    Snail, I could see what they meant about walruses being tactile animals. Wonderful is the right word!

    ReplyDelete

I'm having to moderate all comments because Blogger seems to have a problem notifying me. Sorry about that. I will review them several times daily, though, until this issue is fixed.

Also, I have word verification on, because I found out that not only do I get spam without it, but it gets passed on to anyone commenting in that thread. Not cool!

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