The 150-pound walrus calf was discovered alone and affected by malnutrition and dehydration about 4 miles inland from the Beaufort Sea, with no grownup walruses in sight. Usually, younger walruses are continuously cared for by their moms for the primary two years of life, so the orphaned pup’s solitude instantly signaled bother to wildlife rescue employees.
The pup was airlifted 700 miles and admitted to the Alaska SeaLife Heart’s Wildlife Response Program in Seward, Alaska. There, wildlife rescue employees organized a 24/7 rotation in order that the newborn walrus would by no means be with out care, which included bottle-feedings and near-constant bodily contact from human caretakers, who provided cuddles and luxury throughout the pup’s last days.
Discovering an orphaned walrus pup may be very uncommon, Carrie Goertz, a veterinarian who’s director of animal well being on the heart, instructed The Washington Put up final week. The rescue program has acquired solely about 10 walruses over the past 25 years, she mentioned. The extremely social animals spend most of their time mendacity collectively within the wild, so rescuers needed to breed these circumstances as a lot as attainable by offering human companions for the pup to snuggle, Goertz added.
Sadly, regardless of rescuers’ finest efforts, the younger mammal suffered nutrient malabsorption that brought about different problems, together with hypoglycemia and gastrointestinal issues within the day earlier than he died, the middle mentioned.
“Although our animal care groups labored tirelessly to offer round the clock important care therapies, by no means leaving his facet, the calf in the end succumbed to his situation,” the middle mentioned in an announcement, including {that a} veterinarian would carry out a necropsy to study extra about what brought about the animal’s demise.
