Walruses eat restaurant food at new US Zoo
2022.12.08 07:34
Walruses eat restaurant food at new US Zoo
Budrigannews.com – At a zoo in Tacoma, Washington, two adolescent walruses are settling in and enjoying restaurant-quality mussels and clams.
Balzak, a six-year-old male, and Lakina, a six-year-old female, are half-siblings who were born just two weeks apart to the same father but distinct mothers. After traveling from the Aquarium du Quebec in Canada via cargo plane and trucks, they are currently at the Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium.
Both walruses are able to comprehend and respond to commands in both languages because they were initially trained in a French-speaking Canadian province.
Only 14 walruses are cared for by humans in the United States, making them vulnerable but not endangered.
More All about the coup plot in Germany
Malia Somerville, the curator, stated, “Their main threat is climate change.” The loss of free-flowing ice floes, which walruses use as a resting place and as a habitat for their food, is one way that climate change has affected them.
A six-month supply of seafood of restaurant quality is kept frozen at minus 22 degrees Fahrenheit (-30 degrees Celsius) by the zoo.
According to assistant curator Sheriden Ploof, “We go through 16,000 pounds (7,300 kg) of clams per year just for walruses alone.” We feed our walruses any seafood that you would find in a restaurant.
The teens with tusks got gourmet food as well as caps to help them stay healthy, a dental benefit that isn’t available in the wild.
Their tusks are enamelless or very enamelless. So that makes them inclined to creating wear without any problem. Additionally, they may contract an infection as a result of wear and tear, according to head veterinarian Karen Wolf.
Both are considered teenagers during puberty in human terms.
The walruses may be relocated to suitable partners when they are old enough to mate.
Somerville stated, “Once they are able to reproduce, they might go to meet other walruses so that they can have their own children.”
