A five-month-old Pacific walrus calf found alone on a remote beach in northern Alaska has been flown about 4,000 miles to a new home at SeaWorld Orlando, the Anchorage Daily News reports.
The calf, which weighs about 220lb, was found by a wildlife research intern, Violet Anniskett, and a US Geological Survey scientist after the rest of the herd left during heavy surf. Anniskett named him Annautaq, the Iñupiaq word for axe, in honour of her father. He was treated at the Alaska SeaLife Center in Seward.
The US Fish and Wildlife Service ruled he could not go back to the wild because young walruses depend on their mothers in their first year. In Florida he is being bottle-fed up to six times a day during a 30-day quarantine before meeting the park's walrus herd.
Source: Anchorage Daily News
