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The Rare and Deadly Vampire Walrus!

Bob Canada's Vampire Walrus

Cartoonist Bob Canada turns us on the Vampire Walrus, horrific scourge of the arctic. His posting is as amusing as this drawing. Beware the vampire walrus!

The Vampire Walrus’ wings are mostly for show, as they are far too small to lift its impressive bulk off the ground.

Here’s the link to the full post on Bob’s Blogger site:
http://bobcanada92.blogspot.com/2009/10/rare-and-deadly-vampire-walrus.html

Bob’s a designer and cartoonist from Indiana. Not Canada. I like his drawing style. I like the fact that he posts sketches along with the final art – I always like the energy contained in an artists sketches, sometimes more than the final.

Adults Only! Walrus babies the goal of new scientific research

Photo: Karen T Borchers, San Jose Mercury News

The folks at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom in Vallejo, CA are trying to breed walruses. This is a challenge. Why? Well, according to marine mammal reproductive physiologist Holley Muraco….

The love lives of Pacific Walruses have long been shrouded in secrecy. They mate underwater, at remote, vast and icy habitats, during the Arctic Circle’s longest and darkest nights.

And there is growing concern for their survival because sea ice is melting. Zoos don’t want to collect from these perilous wild populations, and seek instead to increase the genetic diversity of their captive populations.

In the eight decades that walruses have been kept captive, only 11 babies have been born; of those, merely six survived. Fewer than 20 now exist in American zoos, and many are aging, Muraco said.

An then it gets… interesting… So if you’re in the mood to break up your day reading about the R&D process behind manufacturing a walrus sex-toy that allows for some REALLY impressive girth… Like I said – this one’s not for the kids!

Here’s the link to the full article on the Mercury News Site which includes a nice photo gallery:
http://www.mercurynews.com/science/ci_16991027

Walrus Mutant Pirate!

OK, that’s a phrase I didn’t think I’d be using as a headline… Here’s an interesting walrus figure, from French toy Company Papo, the Mutant Walrus Pirate. This is pretty much guaranteed to give small kids nightmares! But would be great fun to play with, when you just HAVE to have the ultimate action figure menace.

Papo toys are usually available at specialty toy stores, and now our local Fred Meyer has them – they’re probably also at Toys R Us and maybe Target? The offer a full line of knights, fantasy figures and pirates as well as LOTS of different animals, but oddly – not a walrus! I have a Papo-style walrus figure sitting on top of my bookshelf stereo on my dresser – I thought it was Papo until I hit their website and can find no walrus in their product line. Now I wonder who makes it?

Here’s the full collection of Papo figurines from their website:
http://www.papo-france.com/Collection.asp

Little Walrus Warning

This delightful little book is from the Smithsonian’s “Oceanic Collection”. There are books for all kinds of species like green sea turtles, etc. My girlfriend’s very young niece apparently saw this book at the Smithsonian gift shop, or some bookstore (they live in Northern VA) and though of me, since she knew I lied walruses. This book showed up out of the blue. It’s a small little book directed at kids, but it was perfect for my son’s first book report. It tells the story of Little Walrus, and how he makes his last trip with his mother before taking his own place in the herd. It’s a fun little book for a young child who is just learning to appreciate the walrus!

Here’s the link to the book on Amazon – throw it in with your next purchase: http://amzn.com/1568992726

See a walrus?

This image is part of a very creative ad campaign from the World Wildlife Fund. If you make end-of-year donations to charity, please consider supporting the work of the WWF by “adopting” a Pacific Walrus from WWF.org.

Random Walrus Fact of the Day

Modern walruses do not use their teeth to chew molluscs like sea otters do. Instead, they hold a clam in their lips, and the vaulted palate allows them to use their tongue as a powerful piston to suck the soft parts right out of the clam shell. The shell is then dropped to the seafloor, never entering the oral cavity.

From the Wikipedia entry for “Imagotaria downsi” an extinct species of  walrus.

Growing Up Walrus

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: “RIP Nereus: Indianapolis Zoo Loses Their Beloved Walrus”

I love this walrus photo

Samka (morse walrus) by Lucie Gattou

I love this photo, from Canadian Photographer Lucie Gattou. She allows downloading of the image from her Flickr stream, via a Creative Commons license. I  have recently printed an 8×10 to frame and stick up on the wall! Great shot.

Here is the link to Ms. Gattou’s Flickr Stream.

Here is the direct link to the main page for this photo.

Dancing Walrus: Intuit Sculpture by Aqjangajuk (Axangayu) Shaa

Photo © 1997-2010 Spirit Wrestler Gallery

This dancing walrus is one of many sculptures by Inuit carver Aqjangajuk (Axangayu) Shaa. Represented by the Spirit Wrestler Gallery in Vancouver, BC. Sorry for the seemingly dashed-off post, but I wanted to share this fun work wit readers of the blog. I need to look into shamanistic native sculpture and the meaning of the walrus within this form of art.

Click here to visit Mr. Shaa’s page at Spirit Wrestler gallery including a catalog of available pieces.