Walrus Restaurant
A group of females with young begin their long swim from the coastal rookery to the feeding areas.
A week ago, I wrote that the area of Cape Heart-Stone in the autumn period becomes a kind of capital of Pacific walruses, gathering up to 100 and more thousand animals on its shores. I must say that walruses come ashore in such numbers not just out of a desire to hang out and soak up the sandy beach.
Throughout the history of their study in the 20th century, no one has ever counted more than 12 thousand animals at Cape Heart-Stone and in its vicinity. It is a pity that no one conducted detailed long-term observations in those years, but it was probably only in the 1990s that this rookery acquired such outstanding importance for walruses. This is due to climate change and, as a result, a reduction in the area of ice and an increase in the period of clean water. In such conditions, walruses had to change their feeding strategy.
Previously, they traveled throughout the summer on drifting ice floes in all the shallow waters of the Chukchi Sea, fed where the ice brought them, and did not depend much on the density of feeding facilities, since energy consumption during the feeding process was minimal. But the ice began to retreat for a long time into the deep-sea regions of the Arctic Ocean, where walruses simply could not reach the bottom to collect shellfish, worms and other favorite delicacies.
They had no choice but to choose the shore areas for recreation, which:
1) on the one hand, they provide an opportunity to sleep soundly, i.e. they are protected from storm winds and waves by the relief of the coast;
2) and on the other hand, they are located at the shortest distance from the seabed areas where the feed density is so high that it makes it possible to replenish the energy costs of swimming to them from the rookery and back.
The area of Cape Heart-Stone meets these conditions as much as possible. Approximately 30 km to the northeast, the density of bottom organisms begins to grow and reaches a maximum of 80-120 km from the coast. This section of the Chukchi Sea is located in the cyclonic cycle zone, where cold Arctic waters meet with a warm current from the Bering Strait. The biomass of the bottom fauna here is, on average, slightly more than 2 kilograms per square meter, and in some places exceeds 4 kilograms per square meter. This is the maximum biomass recorded in the Arctic.
Naturally, the walruses could not miss such an abundance of food, and they began to use the nearest parts of the coast instead of ice for recreation. One of the most convenient areas turned out to be Cape Heart-Stone, where this season we settled in waiting for walruses.
At the walrus party
The New Year and Christmas fuss somehow knocked me out of my rut and out of social networks. It’s not right, I thought, and yet I found the time to continue the story of the expedition from last year.
The next morning, I got up before dawn. And not because I had enough sleep. And not because he was so eager to see the walruses as soon as possible. It’s just that the endless roar from the rookery turned out to be the most effective alarm clock, and with a grunt, I got out of the cozy sleeping bag.
Walruses occupied a spit beyond a small strait that served as the boundary between our habitats: humans and walruses. After taking the obligatory series of vertical photographs with a quadcopter for later counting of animals, I gathered my camera equipment and carefully made my way to the shore of the strait to take close-up pictures of walruses, as well as observe their behavior.
The walruses’ approach to the rookery actively continued throughout the night, at least 8,000 animals came ashore, and their number was increasing every minute. The walruses were tired of staying afloat during the storm, and now they were enjoying relaxing on the sandy beach. After coming out on a hard surface, someone immediately collapsed on the sand, closed their eyes and fell into a sweet slumber. Someone was crawling restlessly along the edge of the deposit, looking for a convenient spot. Many tried to squeeze into the midst of their relatives, where it was warmer and less likely to be attacked by an external enemy – humans or bears.
There were all categories of animals among the walruses in the rookery in Kenishkhun Bay: large females and huge male bumblebees occupied the most convenient places in the middle of the deposit, young animals were displaced from the center at the edges, and mothers with cubs tried to stay close to the water’s edge in order to get into the water at the slightest danger.
There was a lull in the central parts of the deposit, most of the walruses here comfortably sprawled on the sand, laying their flippers and heads on the bodies of their neighbors. It was a “quiet hour” here, everyone was asleep. But there was confusion around the edges of the deposit and near the sea, some crawling away from the water, others, on the contrary, towards the water, and there were constant skirmishes. Three-year-olds are figuring out the relationship, quickly turning their necks and scratching the opponent with their small but sharp fangs, and it’s not always clear whether this is a boyish showdown or just a game.
But a baby walrus began to bark, which was crushed by a medium-sized walrus making its way past with a heavy flipper. Reacting to the scream, the mother immediately wakes up and begins to give fangs to both the culprit of the incident and everyone else who happened to be nearby, just for company. Dozing young males jump up from sensitive blows and, suspecting each other, raise their fangs higher just in case, demonstrating their readiness to join the fight.
One of the males discovers that the opponent’s canines look longer and more massive. It’s better not to show up and get away. He begins to move towards the water through the bodies of his relatives and gets fangs on his thick butt from them for the brusqueness with which he prevents indulging in pleasant walrus dreams. Having received a particularly painful blow, the fugitive raises his vibrissae and makes jerky sounds, which he tries to smooth out his obscene behavior and reduce the intensity of aggression of others.…
I have been observing the behavior of walruses in the rookery for 42 years, and it is always interesting. Maximum concentration of social relationships. The highest level of social life and activity. And how they sometimes resemble people! Or do we look like walruses?
By Anatoly Kochnev Source
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