The Blog for Tooth Walking Sea-Horse Enthusiasts
I check out the various walrus-related videos on Vimeo from time to time. I’ll do a separate post about all the great stuff you can find there. But you should check out this short film – it’s a delightful, experimental film featuring a walrus far from home. NOTE: Walruses should really stop smoking, they have enough trouble as it is.
The Walrus from Luke Randall on Vimeo.
If you are charmed by this movie, you can find the walrus mask here: North Fur FX Walrus Mask
When I got home form work the other day, my girlfriend announced with a smile that Dr. Oz had featured the “walrus exercise” on his show. Now, I’m not familiar with this particular exercise, so a demo was in order. Sadly, I was not thinking ahead fast enough, or I would have captured this on video. On second thought, had I done so, I might be looking for a new place to live right now, so perhaps it’s best I wasn’t recording…
Anyway – I have been unable to locate video of the actual walrus exercise, but here’s a description:
The Walrus Exercise
The Walrus exercise boosts your metabolism and stretches out your back muscles. (Oh, c’mon, you knew Doctor Oz was going to sneak in exercise somehow!)
To do The Walrus:
-Lean forward
-Lie on the ground
-Place arms to your side
-Put hands on top of you like you’re swimming
-Pull yourself up into a walrus moveRepeat several times.
This is cribbed from http://www.drozfans.com/.
Now, I’m not sure about the whole “boosts your metabolism” thing. Personally, I’ll stick with Tae Kwon Do forms. Actually, upon further reflection – an ACTUAL walrus workout would be more like this well-known video:
I got an email today from a guy asking me to check out this video of his brother’s walrus art, ’cause he thought it would go great on the blog. OK, I’ll check it out… And he was right. Thanks for the tip! Great painting and amazing process. Seriously, stay with this video ’til the end because you’ll be amazed. I guarantee you’ll be saying to yourself, OK – where’s the walrus? But just wait….
Nice work!
Well, I came at this sort of backwards, since I didn’t know about Nereus, the subject of this episode until after his passing (after a good life at the Indianapolis Zoo).
Since this post – I have learned who Nereus was – and I discovered this show! It’s an episode of an Animal Planet series called “Growing Up…” which focuses on many different types of wild animals. This episode is so fun to watch. Although there are some moments at the beginning where the viewer is not sure what is to become of Nereus, it is after all a one-hour show and the little walrus rebounds and thrives. It’s amazing to see the personality and playfulness of this rapidly-growing little animal as he grows into his surroundings. One of my favorite scenes has Nereus swimming, and splashing around with his flippers as he plays with one of the adult female walruses, as well as the amusing sequence where he discovers snow for the first time. This is definitely worth watching ESPECIALLY if you have kids around. Even if they give you the eye-roll when you pull out and animal show, they will be won over by Nereus.
Here’s the link to the DVD of Growing Up Walrus at Amazon.com.
There’s another very nice blog posting about Nereus, this show and the passing of “Sitka”, one of the adult female walruses from this episode on “Buddy’s Bemusings” at this link.
Found alone on a beach in Alaska, an orphaned baby pacific walrus is rescued and finds a new home thousands of miles away at the Indianapolis Zoo. Named ‘Nereus’, the baby walrus receives ’round the clock care from his human keepers as they prepare him to join the zoo’s family of enormous adult walruses.
I loved this show – I’ve watched it three times now with various family members and I can tell you that Nereus has converted some of them to walrus lovers!
I posted about Nereus’ passing here:Â “RIP Nereus: Indianapolis Zoo Loses Their Beloved Walrus”
This video just showed up on YouTube. Â This is from the from the World Wildlife Fund and explains their “Umky Patrols” which is a partnership with the Chukchi in Northern Russia. Primarily to keep polar bears from continuing to intrude on villages and become scavengers, the patrols are also protecting the large walrus haul-outs occurring (apparently) on the Russian “side” as well. Their protection of the walrus is centered on controlling panicked stampedes among the large haul outs, which result in crushed calf walruses. The walrus portion of this video starts at 1:29, although there are some disturbing images of dead walrus – so this one’s probably not for the younger kids.
The Umky Patrol highlighted here is in Russia – but we’ve got the same issues going on in Alaska. In fact the Chuchki apparently recently visited their counterparts in Alaska to share expertise and hopefully extend the protective efforts to “our” fragile Arctic animals as well.
Chukotka, by the way – is directly across the Bering Strait from Alaska and is the closest Russian territory to the US. That part of Russia that Sarah Palin can “see” from her back porch – it’d be Chukotka. That would make these Pacific Walruses.
For more on WWF’s work in the Arctic, and on the Umky Patrol, visit:Â http://www.panda.org/arctic
No explanation needed for this one. Enjoy!
I just discovered this video, of a walrus “escaping” from it’s area in Sea World San Diego to roll around and cause a commotion. THAT would have been fun to see. Enjoy!
Showing up on multiple Twitter feeds right now, including mine (@walrusweb) is this highly cute video of a baby otter(!) playing with a stuffed walrus. Nothing more need be said…
Click on the graphic or hit the link to view the whole video. If you’re having a long day, I highly recommend it. Thanks Cheezburger Network – we’ll revisit you when we’re ready to lay out the saga of the LOLrus.
http://icanhascheezburger.com/2010/11/08/funny-pictures-video-otter-walrus/
The Daily Galaxy alerts us to the following:
This stunning image of Alaska’s annual walrus migration is from the new National Geographic mini-series, Great Migrations, which will premiere this Sunday in high-definition and include seven episodes focused on the inspirational, often harrowing animal migrations across the globe.
The story goes on to highlight various quotes from articles about current global warming concerns and the major haul-out that has occurred this fall, which we have blogged about int he recent past. In case we get fooled for a minute thinking that walruses are just good models for stuffed animals and amusing cartoon characters, the Daily  Galaxy article ends with the quote:
Unless we dramatically reduce our greenhouse emissions, the walrus is on a trajectory toward extinction
Here’s a link to the entire Daily Galaxy story.
Here’s a link to the Great Migrations page at National Geographic.com (warning this page launches with rather loud advertising audio). My son and I will be tuning into watch this show tonight, and I hope they’ll make it available on-demand, since I’m notoriously bad at watching shows when they are actually scheduled to be on. Oh, it’s on the National Geographic channel by they way.
One more interesting note, to me at least. The photo heading the post, and the Daily Galaxy post, is by Paul Nicklen and is available as Desktop Wallpaper from National Geographic.com and you can buy a photographic print of this photo at the National Geographic photo store at this link. I did! I’ve had this photo framed on my wall for over a year, after I saw it in the print edition of the Geographic (April 2009). So uh, don’t sue me Paul, for using your print on this post – I bought one!
I remember back in the day when the occasional National Geographic special would be a family event, where we would all gather around the TV and wait for that short lead in “Special!” long before cable TV and several constant National Geographic channels. Looking forward to that feeling tonight. I’ll be watching for walruses!
So as I mentioned in the original post (Royce Cobblepot: Incredible Walrus “Furry†Costume) Royce himself commented on the blog at random prior to my posting about his costume. I asked if he’d be willing to do a short interview and talk about his costume and love of the walrus for our readers, and he agreed!
I wasn’t expecting more than an email response, and would have been very grateful for just that, but Royce greatly exceeded my expectations by creating an incredible interview video just for the site! Here it is:
Royce also provided some additional links in his original email response, including a link to his YouTube channel which is here:
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=E7698DB86425895B
Thanks Royce! You’re officially a “friend of the blog!”