The Newest Addition to Our Family - A Walrus

Most of us who are adults have had pets at one time or another during our lives. Dogs and cats are most common, followed up by fish, hamsters and other pets that have been in style through the years. Having collected replicas of walrus for many years and having accumulated copious information, I have decided that having a walrus is a great idea for numerous reasons.

The primary challenge is going to be finding and capturing one. I've never seen one at any of the grocery or discount stores in the city. Then again, the tradition of buying pets other than in a giant pet complex has gone the way of carbon paper and rotary phones. I remember going to a store in the neighborhood and seeing parakeets and goldfish right next to the batteries and tires. Specialization has done away with all of that.

Although the gestation periods are about fifteen months and walrus give birth only every two years, I'm thinking that having a couple, male and female will be a good idea, if only for companionship. Research through Library.thinkquest.org discloses that bulls will reach approximately thirteen feet while the cows are somewhat smaller at approximately eight. Both males and females have tusks and although I'll have to prepare for the arrival of a baby, the calf will swim at two weeks and eat solid food at six months. What I also discovered from Libary.thinkquest.org is that you can tell the age of a walrus by counting the rings in a cross section of its teeth, in much the same way that you can tell the age of a tree. I suspect that I'll have quite a bit more to learn once my own walrus couple arrives.

On my numerous visits to walrus, I've seen them eat a variety of foods, including fish and mollusks such as clams and mussels. Typically, the tusks are used to dig food out of the ocean bottom but once I install the ice floes, the food gathering process will be made more simple. The tusks will continue to be useful, however, because I've witnessed my pinniped friends using the tusks to drill holes in their ice floes so as to improve mobility. According to Canadianfauna.com, predators are only polar bears, whales and man and having not seen any polar bears in our neighborhood, whales are not likely to be an issue either.

In addition to having quite an unusual addition to our neighborhood, I am confident that my walrus friend will be made welcome. Although I rarely tune into Radio Alaska, I've never heard of anyone being harmed by a walrus. Just to be safe, I'll make certain that we install substantial fences around the ice floes. Most likely there are no "Warning: Walrus" signs in our local hardware store so I may have to have a few printed.

Clearly, it will be an engineering challenge to create an arctic environment complete with ice floes. However, I'm confident that the effort will be justified. Please be sure to stop by, especially with some fresh mollusks or seal meat. Our walrus will be delighted to meet you and show you how to harvest lunch from the bottom of our garden floes.