The Walrus and the Carpenter
“O Oysters, come and walk with us!”
The Walrus did beseech.
“A pleasant walk, a pleasant talk,
Along the briny beach:
We cannot do with more than four,
To give a hand to each.”
Lewis Carrol
Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There, 1872
The walrus is, without a doubt, one of the coolest of all mammals. Not only do they look like cartoon characters, with their comical old-man whiskers and long tusks, they also have amazing personalities. As the New York Times reported yesterday, walruses are friendly, sociable and playful. Like dolphins, they are easily trained in captivity and naturally bond with humans.In fact, life in a walrus herd seems to resemble life in one of the communes that were so popular with the love children of the ’60’s. According to the New York Times article, walruses will fight for each other, share food with each other, and even nurse fellow herd members’ babies.
Also, a male walrus is a one-man jam band. They create epic-length, complicated musical compositions using their flippers, lips, tongue, and special air sacs called pharyngeal pouches as instruments. Their sound is nothing if not experimental-this website has a brief recording of a walrus song. Music is part of the walrus mating ritual. Groups of males will sing for females for hours at a time.
When a female walrus hears a song that she really likes, she will select that male to “get her groove on” with. In captivity, walruses have proved to be amazingly creative musicians-one walrus even learned how to use a pool toy as a musical instrument.
Scientists think that the reason walruses are so smart is because they are so social. They have to be intelligent in order to negotiate the walrus social hierarchy. Also, baby walruses stay with their mothers for several years, so they have time to learn new things by experimenting, instead of simply relying on instinct. Whatever the reason for their intelligence, they are believed to be among the smartest animals, members of an elite group including chimps, dolphins and parrots.
For all of these reasons, walruses are easy to love-unless, of course, you are an oyster. Real walruses are just as predatory as the walrus in the Lewis Carrol poem above. The walrus’ whiskers are more than just an endearing adornment-they help the animals locate food on the dark Arctic seabed. In a single day, a walrus can eat 7,000 oysters! They can open up an oyster and suck the meat out of it about as fast as a person can open a can of soda.
Unfortunately, these amazing animals are becoming one more reason to try to reduce your carbon footprint. Global warming is threatening their habitat and making it harder for them to raise their young. Walrus mothers need sea ice to be available in the relatively shallow waters where they feed. That way, they can leave their babies on the ice while they dive for food. If their is no sea ice close to their feeding areas, they have to leave their young somewhere else, and they can become separated. This was actually documented in 2006 by researchers from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, who discovered groups of calves swimming alone, apparently abandoned. It seems that all the ice near the feeding grounds had melted-the only ice remaining was over water that was too deep for walrus’s to feed in.
It would be tragic if the walrus became a victim of global warming. These interesting and intelligent creatures deserve to be able to survive outside of captivity, living in their natural arctic homes.
This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 1st, 2008 at 11:42 am and is filed under Environment. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.