A college student helping research walrus near her hometown of Point Lay, on Alaska’s northwest coast, made a startling discovery in mid-September: A baby walrus sandwiched between two carcasses.
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That orphaned Pacific walrus calf — named Annautaq after the student’s late father — found itself in the care of the Alaska SeaLife Center in Seward, more than 800 miles from the beach where it was found. SeaLife Center staff say the calf is doing well and was recently transferred to a long-term home.
But its fate was uncertain in the time and distance between the beach near Point Lay and the caretakers in Seward. For one thing, people in the region hunt walrus for subsistence.
And Violet Anniskett, who found the calf while working with U.S. Geological Survey walrus researcher Tony Fischbach, says there were also bear tracks nearby.
Violet Anniskett: I was taking photos of all the carcasses so that I can go back and count them, and I saw the stomach move. I was like, “Wait!” Took a step closer, and all of a sudden, his eyes opened up.
Casey Grove: Oh wow. Was it kind of startling?
VA: Yeah, I was like, “Wait! Thankfully, Mr. Tony had connections, and he starts making some phone calls, and he’s talking to them, and they say that they can save him. But first, the most important step was to ask the community, because it’s a big part of our culture that we harvest animals for subsistence living. It was very important for us to ask the community first, and as soon as they decided as a whole, then we’re able to move forward with the steps of saving him through the Sea Life Center.
CG: Did you wrestle with that at all, I mean in your own mind, about what the right thing to do was?
VA: Yeah, it felt a little hard to think of that option of my community harvesting him, you know, because I was like, “Oh, it’s a baby.” But at the same time, it was like, “You know what? We can’t choose this on our own.” If we were to take him, it’s taking him from the community. To us, subsistence harvesting is just our way of living, you know? That’s how we live. That’s how our ancestors lived, and it’s a really big part of the culture. It was a hard thing to think of, but I knew my community would make the decision that was best, and I had trust in that.
CG: I guess in the meantime, though, there were a few days there where you had to take care of it, right? Can you tell me about that? What happened in the meantime?
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VA: So we walked him all the way to our camp. Somehow, some way, he followed us all the way. And somehow, in some way, we got him into the cabin. We had to go through an old broken door, and I kind of made walrus sounds. And he looked at my face, you know, and then he could see it. He’s like, “Oh, you’re not a walrus.” He walks away.
And we got him in there. Then we we had to stay with him throughout the night. I think the first night was the hardest, because he was afraid of us. He probably missed his mother and didn’t know who we were. Yeah, he would kind of walk around making like a sad little “hoo, hoo.” And he would go to the windows and look out the window, and it was a little sad. But I knew that right now he’s gonna be very, very sad. But if we let him go, he’d probably just slowly die, you know? And if we just let him be sad now, he’ll be so happy within a year.
After he got used to us, he would go to us, and he would lay next to us, and he’d fall asleep. And Mr. Tony was more comfortable with him because Mr. Tony’s more of a taller man, and he would cuddle and snuggle with Annautaq. It was so adorable. He was like an actual baby, the walrus. By day two, I got more comfortable with the walrus, because I was afraid of him as much as he was of me.
CG: Oh, yeah.
VA: And when I finally got used to him, I finally started to be more close to him. And he wasn’t able to sleep unless one of us were in there, unless he was sleeping really hard and had no idea that we left. I remember once he was falling asleep, and he kept trying to go to me, and I would move a little bit until he realized, and he just put his snout on my leg, kind of, and he fell asleep. And then I got up and I went kind of behind him. And then I saw him open his eyes to like look at me. He looked and saw I wasn’t there. Then he picked his head up and started going, “hoo, hoo.” And then he looked behind and saw me and just turned around and went back to sleep.
CG: Oh, wow.
VA: Yeah, I was so happy we were able to take care of him and bond with him a little bit before he had to leave.
CG: Yeah, tell me about moving the calf to Seward.
VA: We had some people from town who had a boat to come and help transport him onto their boat over the lagoon back to Point Lay. Then we drove to the airport. Then the SeaLife Center came, and we had to transport him into a more heavy-duty kennel that they had. That took a while to get him into the other kennel. He was really upset, because he had no idea what we were doing with him. And then they had an extra seat in there, and I got to fly with them all the way to Anchorage, and then we drove to Seward.
CG: Well, Violet, that is quite the adventure, I have to say. How did you feel at the end of that?
VA: It felt very accomplishing. I felt so excited and so happy that sooner or later he’ll get used to a bottle, and he’ll be able to get all the food he can have. You know, I think that’s the part that made me so excited for him to leave. Like, it was a little bit sad, but I feel like it was more exciting for me knowing that he’ll be in so much better care and being able to eat whenever he wants and being able to go into a little tiny pool where he can swim. I was so excited for him. And when I left, I felt so happy knowing that he was in good hands.
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