The Huggable, Lovable Walrus

my top five favorite Josh is is it? I thought so. I guess you're feeling pretty good today, Jerry, you are too, Yeah, she says, yeah everybody. Um, well, the reason we're feeling good is because there are a fewer just simple pleasures in life then researching and talking about animals. Agreed. It's one of my favorite s Y s K episode categories as animal ones. Yeah, and it sort of don I picked this one out and it sort of dawned on me.

It had been a minute, and um. Sometimes these are some of our lighter lifts because we have some really great house to works articles on animals and insects, so it doesn't require like, you know, another twenty hours of research on stuff. Uh, and we needed a lighter lift this week. And I was like, hey, it's been a while. I was perusing I saw walrus Is and they're so darn cute and been lovable. I thought, all right, well we got to get in there on this. Yeah. Plus

is a Jennifer Horton joint. And remember she used to be like the in house animal writer. Oh was it? Yeah? She she doesn't remember. Yeah, what would happen to her? I don't know, but she left behind a legacy that includes an article on walrus Is. Yeah. And I will go and say up front, this is now in the running for me with a little competition between the octopus and the jellyfish. Okay, well then this is what we're

gonna do. You're gonna go, um, but that's all I can think of when um, when a fact comes up that you're like, this is one of the reasons why they're in competition. Okay, okay, all right. Oh and before we get started. Also before we get started, sorry, um, I wanted to give a big shout out to our pals at The Daily Zeitgeist, one of our sister podcasts. They had me on yesterday. I know, I haven't listened to it yet. How was it? It was pretty great?

Like they make it really easy on you. Um, They're like, here, read all these articles that were potentially going to talk about and study them for five hours, just like you do stuff you should know, and then we're not going to talk about any of those not a single article that I researched. Dude, we talk about. But I've managed to keep up anyway. That's how easy those guys make it. So thank you to Jack and Miles and Anna for

for having me. And I guess when you're hearing this by yesterday, I mean March five, So go back and listen to the March fifth episode of Daily's Like Guys, and then listen to all the episodes of Daily's Like Guys. Yeah, I saw that they had a cutout, cardboard cutout of you sitting in a chair, which is kind of funny. Yeah, it is funny. But then I'm like, well, what are you guys doing with a cardboard cut out of me? Probably made it right, I guess, but I didn't. That's

they got a big budget. Then we don't have a budget for cardboard cutouts. No, But I'm glad you gave me the inside skinny because I'm gonna be on at some point. And now I'm gonna say, hey, don't don't do that crap you did with Josh. I'm not reading a bunch of stuff unless we're doing it. Yeah, no, no, just show up to show up relaxed and prepared to talk,

and you will be great. Uh So, the other thing I had to say of the two things running in for my favorite animal and another movie prediction from apparently on the Great Movie Predictor or just Life predictor, uh, Pixar, get on it, because if you don't do a lovable story about a family of walrus is at some point, then someone else is gonna beat you to the punch, maybe us, and it's gonna be great because there's nothing cuter.

Just look up on your on your favorite image search walrus calf and mother or just walrus calf and get ready to be outcuted by most other animals. Like they're so cute they can make you forget that you're watching them live in captivity. That's how cute those things that some of these are photographed in the wild. Yeah, the videos that I've seen of calves are mostly the one that was born at Sea World. It was like the

first walrus born in captivity. I think, if I'm not mistaken, he is just as cute as the day is long. But not small. I mean like it's it's like our size. Yeah, they're not small. No, So like, apparently here's a fact for you. I'm gonna give you. I'm gonna give you the chance to do your heraldry. I'm not gonna make any sounds alright, cool um, the walrus calf is born born no less than ninety nine pounds and up to a hundred and sixty five pounds born. How much to

undred and sixty five pounds? And for our friends outside of the United States, that's forty five born. Yes, so a mother a cow, walrus cow. She's hoping for a nd right for the ease of birth because they only get up to like a hundred pounds. So they're like all calf and they're all water bursts. Though no, there're ice perths. Kind about that. Yeah, all right, we'll get it. We're getting ahead of ourselves. I'm getting excited. All right, we should go back to the beginning. Who invented walters?

Is they were invented by the guy who invented sea monkeys, uh, which just dropped today. Yeah, that was a good one.

It was alright, So should we go to uh by beginning, we just mean we're going to talk about walters is Well, how about this, we could talk about where they came from because um walrace has lived and they're very very isolated and as they exist today, there's two species and I guess they're really subspecies, but they can't mate and they're geographically isolated, so they're they're technically two different species. Can they not mate because they're not near each other

or their parts don't fit? Jennifer Horton, I don't know. She just says that they're um reproductively isolated, which means they can't, you know, so they can kiss. I don't exactly. I don't know if that means that that, yeah, like their parts don't fit or but she says they're they're geographically isolated too, So why would you also say that if you know they were one and the same. So

that's just injury, I guess, I guess so. But there are two groups subspecies or species of walrus is the Pacific walrus and the Atlantic walrus, and they're both related. They think they diverged as recently as like half a million years ago. It's like five thousand years ago. There used to be a lot of different walrus species. Now there's just the two um. But at some point they all descended from and the same ancestor of red pandas. So walruses are related to red pandas, just a little

back on the family tree. And they're even more related to red Pandas than they would be to say, like manatees, would you'd be like, well, manatees and walrus is the same thing. Nope, not even remotely related. I thought you're gonna say Wilford Brimley, he's one, or Friedrich Nietzsche. Oh, does he have the walrus mustache? Yeah? Are yosemboite Sam? Yeah? And that. Then there was the professional golfer Craig Stadler. I don't remember him he uh, he's probably on the

senior tour now, but he was. His nickname was the Walrus. Well, he would need to look out for Jack Nicholas, whose nickname was the Golden Bear. Yeah. They didn't get along, so, really did they not? No? No, that would be the polar bear. Yeah, any I guess so the today, Chuck. There are walrus is in the north of the Pacific and the north of the Atlantic around basically the Arctic. Yes, and there's the Pacific walruses, and then the Atlantic walruses. Yeah,

the Pacific. The differentiation here that the males are generally bigger, between nine and twelve feet and roughly sevent undred pounds and about four thousand at the top top end women women females. The ladies are about seven and a half feet to ten feet four hundred to twelve fifty for

the Pacific. The Atlantic males are a little smaller. They top out around the low end of the Pacific and about two thousand pounds, and the ladies are shorter and a little heavier and about eight feet so about the same length but a little a little heavier. Yeah, So they're they're big. Man with jam is I mean eight DRAMs for Pacific males. That is, that's those are big boys, um, And they're all they're all members of the order Pinapedia, so they're related to seals and sea lions and their

Latin name. Their scientific name is otto benice rose maris, which means are you ready for this tooth walking sea horse. That's great. And the name walrus too, by the way, is a Danish word. Yeah, and of that order uh pinapede ah. They're the second largest only to the elephant seal um. And they're the only one that have those tusks, those hallmark tusks of the walrus um on the male jutting down while females happened two but on the male jutting down from that big um yosemite sam mustache, part

of what makes them so cute. Yeah, So those tusks, And I was looking up with the difference between a tusk and a tooth is I think once it really kind of protrudes from the mouth, it becomes a tusk. But their tusks are just overgrown canines nine te um that grow up to I think about a meter three ft long. That's crazy long, it is, and they can

do all sorts of stuff with that, right. So, because walruses are so isolated, they're so far north, so far away from most humans, um, they have been little studied scientifically. Although of the two groups, we know the most about the Pacific walrus, but the stuff we do know has been largely guesses like, only very recently did we figure out that they don't use their tusks to eat, because they eat like um, seashells, like mollusks and clams and

other bivalves. Right, And they used to think that the walrus is either use their tusks to like route out clams and mollusks off of the sea floor, or they use them to pry open shells. While both of those are wrong. It turns out they don't use their tusks for much except to menace one another when they're trying to establish dominance. Yeah, that's that's one of the things they can do. But um, I think he used a good word, their menace. They don't try and kill one

another with their tusks. Uh. They like to jab at one another and established dominance as like, Hey, I'm I've got bigger tusks, some larger than you. But they're not.

First of all, they're protected. They have this really thick skin around their neck and shoulders, so they're they're protected in a sense, and they're not getting to kill one another either, right, but they do, I mean, they do draw blood when they jab each other, so they have their their their little technique is they lean their heads back like so so that their tusks are parallel with the earth, and then they go ninja strike right, and

they'll draw a little blood and they'll even like leave scars. But like you said, their necks are so protected with blubber. It's like it mainly is just to to make a point, and the point typically is move from what I can understand. Yeah, they also will use their tusks sometimes to break through ice to breathe. And then this one cute, cute move they're swimming around, they're tired, they might stick their head through and hook their tusks onto the ice and just

hang there for a bit, Yeah, which is pretty great. Yeah, they have these sacks, fairy geal sacks that allow them to kind of buoy upright, keep their head upright above water. But would guess that that gets tiring after a while and eventually just let the old teeth do it, you know. Yeah, And like I said, the ladies have them too, But the males are longer and stronger, a little bit straighter. Uh, and they can grow. I mean a wal risk can live up to thirty years and the tusks may grow

for about half of that life. Yeah, I saw thirty. I also saw forty somewhere that they can live up to forty. All right, that's one of the things. I'm not gonna make the noise, but anytime animals live a long time with one another, um that that kind of gets me. Yeah, and I found this very fascinating about Wallace is Man. They are um, very social creatures. Like

they hang out together, they like swim around together. Um. The boys rest together for you know, months at a time or weeks at a time, sometimes during certain times of the year. But they live um apart from one another, males and females. They only come together to mate and then they say, Okay, this has been really great. I'll see you next year. Yeah, I'll see a camp next year. It's very interesting. As far as the rest of their body, Um,

they're mostly dark brown. Although I don't want to give it away, but they can change color depending on what they're doing, which is kind of interesting. Uh. And you know, this is one of the situations where they it's a kind of a big, clunky creature on land, but once you get them in the water, then they're just so graceful, which is a really lovely thing to see. Yeah, and when they walk on land, so they turn their flippers out.

Their front flippers they have two pair, right, so they turn the front flippers out to their side and just kind of use that for side to side stability. And they put their back flippers underneath their pelvis and they use that to kind of propel themselves forward. It's it's very cute. Yeah. And because they're ance, they're flippers um are have like rough bottoms like a shoe sole almost. Uh. And then in the water, it's kind of a reverse

boat thing. They don't steer from the rear. They use those front flippers for steering and obviously power themselves with those super strong alternating backflippers. It's like one of those ships the hides used to scal Oh yeah, remember, yeah, that's right. So it's basically the walrus of the riverboats. Yeah, and these guys can swim. They says they average about

four and a half miles an hour. I think that's just when they're kind of cruising, but they can swim as fast as twenty tour if I guess they're fleeing something. Even though they don't really have many predators, No, they don't. They basically have two, don't they? Well, including humans, they have three, don't they? Okay, what are they? Oh? Okay, Well, if you want to talk predators, they have polar bears,

as you said earlier, killer whales, and then humans. But that's one of the reasons why they've been so successful. And we'll talk about that, how successful and whether or not they're thriving or stabler whatever spoiler they are right after this. Huh, All right, Chuck, we're back. That's right. And if you've ever have you ever seen did you notice in any of the videos that a walrus up close with like in their face what do you mean?

So their eyes in particular, they have like pug eyes, you know, Pug's eyes look like they're about to pop at any minute. Yeah, they always looked a little surprised. Yeah. I didn't know this because there was a camera on them all of a sudden. It could have been I was looking up walrus intelligence because you know, there's a lot of videos about walrus is where they're they're saying, like,

you know, whistle or speak or whatever. Because as we'll see, walruses can make a lot of cool noises, and the walruses do the different things. So they're obviously trainable, which means that there's some level of intelligence. But I couldn't find anything about like, oh yeah, these guys are as intelligent as an octopus or a pig or something. Couldn't find anything like that, but they are trainable. Has anyone who's seen the screen classic fifty first Dates can tell you?

I don't think I saw that. That's a good one. Actually, yeah, yeah, Sandler and Drew Barryman. Right, where does the walrus fin in? He is like a marine biologists specializes that. I think in Walrus is or something like that, because he's got penguin friends too. But anyway, there's a trained walrus that factors into it. I have to check that out. It's actually a pretty cute movie. Hey you got me at at Adam Sandler and Walrus. Okay, uh so these guys

and ladies are, like you said, all over the Arctic. Um, if we're talking Pacific, we're talking to bearing. See the Chukchi, which shout out to my friend Max Goldman. I just saw on Facebook this morning. He had a great picture of himself staring out at the icy Chucky. See, well, my only Alaskan friend. It sounds really cool. Yeah, it was really gorgeous. And I said something about, hey, I was just reading about this, and of course he's on Alaska time, so you probably woken up yet. He's like,

I can see Russia from my house. He might. Uh. And then the laptop see in the Pacific uh. And then along the coast of Canada on the Atlantic side in Greenland is where you're gonna find the other guys. And we're talking two hundred and fifty total walrus is about two hundred thousand, of which are Pacific. Yeah, yeah, two total, which doesn't sound like a lot. But again, we'll get to it later. But but they're doing okay, Yeah, they really seem to be, don't they. Yeah, we don't

want people to worry too much about the walrus. So so back to the walrus. Is pug eyes, right, they um kind of protrude and you'd think, wow, that walters can see all over the place. It's doing a three sixty with its eye right now. Um, not necessary. Early. They're actually not the best at seeing, but they don't need to be because there are other organs are more evolved to kind of make up for it. They they hunt and can smell out predators using their nose. I

think it is probably their primary sense from what I understand. Yeah, in their ears they can hear. They have these two little uh kind of flap ears basically openings with a little protective flap, and uh, they can hear things like perhaps pray up to a mile away. Yes, I was looking for that. Did you Did you see that anywhere else? No, it was one of those ones that raised a red flag because I looked all over it was like seeing just that that. Yeah, they can hear for up two

mile away. The closest thing I saw that proved that was demonstrations by um Arctic natives who would make like a walrus call, and like a walrus like a mile away would respond to it. They said hey wa us and the war was looked around. Said you're talking to me, yes, sir. How they talk Yeah, like Southern gentlemen. They have that high cotton accent. I don't even know what that means. That's a Southern thing, like, um, well, there's a bar

in Charleston called High Cotton, so I was thinking of. Yeah. So their noses, though, is where that's their money maker. Um, they have it's very sensitive. Um. Like you said, they used to think that they use their tusks or I don't know if you said it, but they used to think they these are tusks to grind into the sea floor dig things up. But that is not the case. They are blowing out of their nose to clear away

stuff and stir up things to eat. And those whiskers those uh what do you say called those vieber say viber say, four hundred and seven hundred of those in fifteen rows. Not only do they look cute and like a big walrus mustache, but are super sensitive. Yeah, so that's like their cactile sense. Then these little whiskers, the sensitive whiskers, and they use those. So they shoot water out of their nose into the bottom of the sea

and it stirs up some stuff. The clams are like stop stop, and they start to float up, and the walrus is since the clams with their their whiskers their vibers say, or whatever you call them, and then things get even weirder, right because remember they don't use their tusks to open the clams. They don't use their tusks

to burrow. Their tusks actually appear to kind of get in the way if anything as far as feeding is concerned, what they do is they they are they have a very high cavity in their mouth and they can pump their tongue back and forth like a piston. So they actually produce of a form of suction so strong it sucks a clam right out of the shell. The clam as as they can't say anything, that poor clam, they're

just hanging out down there. Before you know it, they get snotted, snotted on and sucked out, and a lot of them too. It's a very undignified ending for the clam. Yeah, it says in here, and I didn't find back up for this, but I believe it is that that suction is so powerful. They've been known to suck holes in plywood and I saw that. Yeah, I saw that elsewhere too, that they they've had like five pound plugs in some of their aquatic um like habitats. They've sucked out of

the flower that's crazy, also known as the floor the flower. Yeah, yeah, so they do have things your hot cotton exit out of the floor. So they do have like that, some amazing suction going on, and they don't even chew. They have these amazing like three ft teeth. They don't even chew with any of them. They just eat a clam hole. And I think, did you say three thousand to six thousand of them? Indicating no, I said a whole lot,

that's a lot. Yeah. They said that they can eat um between four and six percent of their body weight each day. So let's just say an average three thousand pound walrus eating about five that's a hundred and fifty pounds a day of not just clams um. They're not super picky anything down there, seaworms, snails, crabs, uh, they'll eat all that stuff. But I get the feeling that they really love those clams. Yeah, they like the claims of the moment, as they should. But think about that.

If there's two hundred and fifty thousand walruses in the world, all basically up in the Arctic, and each one is eating something like three thousand to six thousand claims a day, how have clams not taken over the world by now? Yeah, it's crazy. It's um that. You know. The comedian Nate Bargatti, Yes, he has that funny joke about a million sharks a year killed and he was just like, I didn't know there's ever been a million sharks in the history of

the world. Like, He's like that just sounds like a lot of sharks, except Nate does it great because his delivery is that of a professional comedian in that high cotton next and not me. Well he's from Tennessee. There you go. Uh, so they're eating cheese. I mean, I can't even do the math. Two fifty thousand times four thousand. Uh they're equals um a ton and we're still able to dip our Christini and clam juice at an Italian dinner. Do you like clams? I'm more of an oyster guy.

I like them both. I like to be turned on by my food. You know. Well, I mean I definitely love oysters, and we'll never not order them if it's at a place with a good chance of having good ones. But I'll dip into a clam shell. Well, you put clams in your bloody Mary mix? Oh yeah, clamato, Sure that's clam juice. Yeah, oh man, I could kick it up a notch if I put a couple of clams in there. Yeah, not in the shell, but just like pick the meat out. Well, yeah, live have them like

living there for a little while. East of that vodka. They do live up by Russia. I bet there's been more than one beach bar called the Drunken Clam. There's got me in there, like I think that's the that's the bar and the family guy. Oh is it? I'm pretty sure. Oh, we're gonna find out if it's not. I don't know, man, I feel like we've gone a little off the rails. Did we take a break or can we pull it back without it? Uh? Well, quickly,

let's talk about the third potential breed um. There is another subspecies that is not officially a subspecies Um that lives in the Laptev Sa near Siberia, called the Laptev walrus, and apparently their skull and body size is pretty similar to the Atlantic and the Pacific um. And I'm not sure why it wants its own distinction, but they haven't been recognized as such. Yeah, I mean there must be different enough in some way. Yeah, I saw. Some people

see them is a different species. Other people just do not. I'm not sure what the deal is. Maybe they're isolated themselves. I don't know. I don't know either. Now you want to take a break, Okay, all right, So one of the other things that I love insert whatever sound effect is in your head, listener. Uh, is that they are very and this is the same deal with the elephant. In any creature that's very sensitive and caring to one another. Uh,

they will watch over their injured friends. Um. If one of them dies, they will push them off the ice if hunters are nearby so they can't get them. Um, the ladies, well this is so sad, but the ladies will carry their dead young away from hunters. And if they sense that they're dudes nearby, these hunter men nearby, Um, they can hack away at ice to break it away and free uh, like a calf that might be stuck or something. Yeah, they could really take care of each other.

It's been documented. Yeah, it's pretty cool. They're very sensitive creatures. It turns out, so, Um, I don't think we could talk about walrus is if we didn't talk about blubber, right, Yes, so you said that, Um, it's pretty thick. I think

that's an understatement, Chuck. The the blubber layer on a walrus is something like about almost four inches ten centimeters thick, and during the winter, when they're at their blubberyest, it's about a third of their body weight, So they might have like a thousand pounds of fat in in their body at any given point in time, which is is pretty you gotta tip your hat to that. Well. Yeah, and this you know, of course, this is an adaptation

to deal with the temperatures where they live. Keeps them warm. Apparently they lose heat twenty seven times faster and water, and they are in water, what is it, like two thirds of their life or something like that. Yeah, so they have this remarkable blubber to keep that body temperature at about ninety eight degrees ninety seven point nine degrees pretty consistently. Right, So you were saying, you were alluding

earlier to how they can change color. Here's how you're ready. Yes, when they're in the water for a while or when they're exposed to really really cold temperatures, their um their their body pumps blood away from their skin and sends it to their core to keep their internal organs warm because the skin doesn't need to be as warm as say, the internal organs is survival mechanism, right, And then once they start to warm up, and when that happens, they

turn kind of white, like like a white worm, kind of thing going on. Did you ever see that movie The Layer of the White Worm. No, but that sounds familiar. It was an early Hugh Grant movie where like there's this group in uh in England that like worship this white worm that comes out like every century or something like that. It's like a weird English horror movie that is also kind of funny in some ways. It's a

good one. But anyway, that's what a walrus looks like when it's really really cool, like you Grant, Yeah, but white, super white. He's about as white as it gets. These guys get even whiter because they're very, very cold, that's right. And then once they get back to like where the sun is shining, or maybe back on the ice where it's ironically slightly warmer um, their color can come back there they're still brown that they can get a little bit more of a pinky look to them. They can

with that blubber. They can handle water that's like down to negative four degrees ferret height. It's just something like negative twenty celsius. And they I mean, like you said, they spend two thirds of their life and water this cold. They live in the Arctic, so they're pretty well suited for it. Well, negative four is the low end. It can go all the way down to negative fifty nine. That's nuttie. Uh. And they do have little hairs, uh

that they shed in the summer. But it's pretty much everyone is in agreement that it doesn't really do much to keep them warm. It's left over from when they were bears. That's my theory. It probably is. Yeah. Uh, so they have another cool adaptation. Um, they can go a long time without oxygen. And this is all has to do with how they circulate oxygen and their blood. So uh, when they dive, they actually slow their heart rate down and then that blood again goes to those

organs because they need oxygen and warmth. And uh. They also have a special protein in their blood called myoglobin that binds with the oxygen and then actually stores it in the muscles. Right, so they have plenty of oxygen whenever they're they're diving. How how deep do they dive?

I can't remember it said they feed I think from between like thirty something and a hundred ft, but they they prefer a little shallower because one of the worries with global warming is the sea ice is retreating and going away so they're having to go further and further north to get to the sea ice, which means that

the waters are deeper. So they're having to learn how to how to dive deeper to feed and um, you know, there's just one of the effects of global warming is sometimes the moms will get separated from their calves because it's such a long journey and they don't know, like are they going to be able to adapt and learn

to dive that deep to hunt for food? Right, And and it's yeah, it's not just um where they where they hunt for food from, like these are it's kind of like their little base, right, So when when they're on ice or an ice flow, they'll dive for food, they'll come back up, they'll rest. That's where they sleep. Um, that's where moms and their calves rest. Sometimes they nurse there.

It's where um cows give birth to calves. There's like ice plays a very very important role in the walrus is life, so much so that in the Pacific walrus, the females basically just follow the edge of the ice north in the summer and then come back down south in the winter. Is the ice kind of like ebbs and flows right towards the north pole um and and as it doesn't retreat as far down. It's just it's messing with the program a little bit, Like you said,

not just with food, but also with just typical regular behavior. Yeah, I've been in a lot of these cases too. There's got to be just some like confusion, you know. Yeah, Like if you're for however many millions of years, you've been used to the same thing, and if all of a sudden you're like, wait a minute, like where are we going now, They're like, I'm just a walrus. Your

your world frightens and confuses me. What happened to the accent? Uh? That? Well, this is a different wal risk, This is ted the walrus. Also that pharyngeal muscle that you were talking about, which can they can puff up to kind of buy them. They also will puff that up to close off water from entering their lungs when they dive. Let's talk about those pharyngeal sacks, because there they are pretty amazing. There's

a lot of stuff they can do with those. First of all, walruses make some of the coolest sounds of any animal I've ever heard. There's a clip on YouTube just type in walrus sounds, and there's one that comes up, and it's just a static picture of a big, old, gigantic walrus. Um, what do they call them? Are they called bowls? Well, they call them cows and calves, that probably, but I didn't see bulls anywhere. A dude walrus, right, just a big boy and um, it's about two and

a half minutes of just the best walrus sounds. And it's actually in a really weird way, kind of soothing, like you can have it on in the background. I noticed I retained twelve percent more information while it was playing, and I did when I wasn't listening to her, Right, it just made that statistic upture. But you get the point. And well, can we play some of it? Yeah? Can we do that? Sure we can't. Jerry's nodding and she rolled her eyes. Well, here's like seconds is some some

good walrus sounds? Halla, so ten twenty seconds? Who knows what it be? Well, we can only use ten because of the rights issues. Okay, get sued by the Walrus Association, right exactly, I'm ted walrus and I've had enough of this getting pushed around. So um, the way that the walrus are one of the ways the walrus makes so many different times. It's because these faaryngeal sacks that they used to buoy themselves with, they use it also as an amplifier, and they make all these sounds when they're

mating with women. That's right. So you remember how the females in the Pacific go north in the summer and then come back in the winter. On their way back, they meet up with the guys who generally stay south in the Bearing Sea the whole whole year. Um, And that's just s Pacific the Atlantic ones. They put year around,

both males and females. But as the Pacific females are coming back mating season as time perfectly with that, and they will sit in groups of about twenty or twenty three on a big chunk of ice and say, dudes, let's see what you got. And then the little Gilligan's Island Talent show starts and they literally line up out there give each other a little space. They fight for that prime spot. Yeah, they'll tusk. Yeah, that's when they

get a little aggressive. And the poor always feel bad for the guys like in the back row or whatever like it. He's got to really ramp up his vocalization. I us and he's like my tusk broke. But he's probably got a lady out there who likes that. But they do they they kind of perform for them. They do a little routine and the ladies are like, you, um, sexually mature man, who I think, Uh, they reached. The male reaches sexual maturity about eight to ten, females five

to six. But this is adorable. They still don't hug and kiss until a few years after, just because they just, I don't know, they want to do it the right way. I think that um, that we don't have to take our clothes off. Song is one of the Walrus's favorite songs of all time. They're really big into promise rings, but friendship bracelets first. Uh. So the female has a

gestation period about fifteen months, so this is a big deal. Um, you know, they're they're pregnant for a long time, so they want to hook up with the right dude, uh to get them pregnant. Depending on it falls, depending on when it falls in the cycle. They may even sit that out if they're pregnant, you know, like they may

take a year off. Yeah, they're like, I'm good I'm covered, but that is it's a thing like if if a if a cow is pregnant come next mating season, like you said, she's gonna kind of hang off to the side and wait for her friends to be done so they can keep going south. Um, but that actually is going to have an impact on her calf because she's gonna spend more time raising it and nursing it. Yeah, which is really great. Like if if that happens in the timing works out, they can they can be with

their young for up to a couple of years. Yeah, so I think like a male calf, So remember males and females they separate. They only come together during mating season. And then if you're a male calf that's born, you're hanging out with your mom for a year or two years, depending on the timing of her pregnancy. And then you go off with the mail hurt and say what up, boys, I'm here, it's party, and they said get at the

back of the line. Yeah, I saw that. It's just sounds so adorable that very young um walrus calves boys will practice that tusking thing even before their tusks are grown out. So they mess around with each other like I'm gonna I'm gonna tusk you when my tests come in. Look, i'd love to see that. It's like little goats before they get their horns. Yeah, they can do the same thing when they just have those little nubs. They just walk around with headaches all the time. I have goats

to live across the street from me. I don't think I've told you that Satanic goats are cute goats, no cutest good Christian goats. Yeah, uh yeah, they're great. They I'm not sure what the pat My neighbor across the street had like seven or eight of them last year and they went away for the winner. And now she has a new batch. And she's jim No, no, no,

she's Jamaican. And I think what someone said in the neighborhood is that she's keeps his oats around and then raises them and then has them shipped to Jamaica as like a charitable thing. What you're right where they're eating. I don't know what they're eating. I'm pretty sure. I'm not sure. But this is a new batch of goats. And of course, you know, my kid loves it. Yeah, I love goats too, Little baby goats, baby lambs. I saw, Um, you mean, I watched this documentary called The Secret Life

of Dogs. Have you seen it? It's from two thousand thirteen. I think BBC originally made it. If you get a membership with Curiosity, a subscription on Curiosity on Amazon Prime. It's on there. That's the only place I've found it. I think, is it a sub thing I have to join because I'm already on the Prime. Yes, it is. It's an extra subscription, but it's like a seven day trial or something like that. Really curious. You will pay for it, right, so they they have the secret Just

check it out. Check You're going to love it. Um. It's just a really well made documentary. But in part of it, there's this this herding dog, some sort of shepherd um that bottle feeds a baby lamb holding a bottle in her mouth. This little lamb is nursing off of the bottle. It's one of the most adorable things you'll ever see in your entire life. Well, I think we've agreed in the past that inter animal mingling and coupling and friendship is the best thing in the world.

Maybe not coupling, but the rest of it. Well, I don't mean like, I just mean in a friendly way. Do you one of the other I love? There's just one more thing about this. The the woman who owns the dog, or who I should say is best friends with this dog, said, I didn't teach her this. She picked this up herself. Yeah, and I just dropped the mic. As you can see, I probably watched twenty five minutes the other day of um of baby pigs playing with puppies.

Oh that's adorable. It's it's pretty great man. Okay, So so back to the wall, Yeah, back to reproduction. UM, this is kind of really cool. Actually, for the first up to five months of gestation, the eggs aren't even in planting yet, so they just float around in the uterus for up to five months and then eventually will implant on the uterine wall. And they think this is all done on purpose so that the calf is born at the right time in the best environment possible. Yeah.

I just I thought that was a weird adaptation, like why not just have a shorter gestation time? But I guess they got figured out. I'm not gonna I'm not gonna pry so the so again, it's fifteen months gest station period, and the calves are born usually on ice, which again melting ice is a problem for him um. And then they stick around for a year or two, go off to the male herd, and then you've got the males and the females, and the females migrate in

the Pacific. The males generally stay around the same area, which means that they moved to land when the ice recedes.

And there's actually this island in Alaska called Round Island that's very famous for being a walrus summering area where for a couple of a couple of weeks I think, every summer, and for reasons no one knows, the walters males all just come to this one island and they'll be like twelve thousand of them just on top of one another, hanging out, um, just basically being social, having a having a boy's week. That's great. And it's so like dense with walrus. Is it's wall the wall walrus.

You can't see the sand or not the sand? But is there sand or is it just ice? It is sand or no, it's I'm sorry, it's if I read that it's rocky, I haven't actually seen it myself, but you can't. You can't see anything beneath the waters. Is it's just walters flesh and blubber. Yeah, there's this one, uh if you ever drive it the coast of California. I'm gonna butcher this because I don't remember what the animal was. If it's a uh, a manatee, it's probably

not a manatee. I think it's Sea lions of its seas to California. Yeah, but there's something near the the house, the Hurst Castle. There's a beach that Emily and I drove by that was wall the wall, I guess at Sea Lions when we went, and it's got to be a certain time of year, maybe time of day. I have no idea, but we didn't even know. We just sort of looked upon it and saw a bunch of cars pulled over with mouths agape, and sure enough, the

whole thing and the sound was amazing. It was just a bunch of But imagine one thing going and then imagine a thousand things doing that, like the sweat hogs. Mr Kat very nice on cue. Thank you all right, Chuck. So what we said, um, there's three basically three predators for the walrus, the polar bear, which, by the way, I saw that a walrus can fend off a polar

air with its tusks one on one. The way that polar bears hunt walruses is they cause a stampede and walruss try to get away from the polar bear and they will trample some a few unfortunate walruses, and the polar bear comes up and says, hey, thanks for the free meal. That's how they hunt walruses. The same thing happens when humans get too close, say like in a low flying plane or um just basically spook the walruses. But they are hunted um but very very very narrowly

by a very small group of people. UM that in Upiak and the u Pick natives of the Arctic area. UM in the US, Canada and Russia are basically the only human beings allowed to hunt a walrus. And the reason why is because it's part of their um cultural tradition to hunt walruses. And when they were forced to stop for about thirty years from the sixties to the nineties, their culture really started to suffer a decline as a result. Yeah, and you know that they are protected as such. Now.

Over the years there have been. Um. I mean they've been hunting walrus, as it says here since the ninth century. These are oil the ivory of course for art their skin. Uh. And for many years that you know, they were being depleted because of the oil mainly that they would use for you know, soap or lamps or it says here even machine lubricant. But we have gotten on board with protecting them along with like you said, Canada and Russia,

and uh, they're they're doing pretty good now. Yeah, apparently the population is stable. They're they're um listed as vulnerable. I didn't see why, um, because they are almost universally protected by Arctic nations. Um, so there's not a ton of poaching a little bit, but it's not like poaching

in Africa, right for their ivory typically right. So I think for the reason why it might be climate change, then that would be the only thing I can see because they're pretty well protected, um reproductive, they're doing top notch ah and that's it. I wonder if when a polar bears eating a walrus, if they get in there and they're like, hey, Phil, he's got like two thousand

clams in them too. Both ponents H and I've read actually that their um, their meat is like hard, kind of tough, but it's also very lean and supposedly very tasty as well. Really. Yeah, And one of the things that Upak and the U Picks are known for is

using of the walrus, is that they kill. Yeah. I think a lot of times, almost all the time, with indigenous people's they understand the value of a creature in respect that animal, and part of that respect is I'm just gonna take these tusks and kick it back in the water. It's using everything from uh, it's the stomach for a drum to the skin to cover your boat, the raincoats. Apparently they used to use their um what was it, the intestines for raincoats. Yeah, it's pretty pretty sharp.

And apparently these villages too were um they were early environmentalists. The would set their own standards for hunting because they knew the value of making sure they thrived. Yeah. I've read this really interesting article, I think on a site called like Cultural Survival or something, and it detailed how the the I think, the U Picks and the US government in Alaska, over like thirty years, came to an agreement finally about hunting on Round Island. Um, but it

was pretty interesting. I was like, wow, that government really has taken this seriously. This protection they they just wouldn't give at all on any of it. And then finally the U picks were like, we have to do this culturally like this, this is not just us being Yahoo's doing this for fun, like we have to do this. We're losing like this cultural tradition. So they came to an understanding that apparently is doing quite well. Nice just

like the Walrus is right. If you want to know more about walruses, check out walrus is on how stuff works dot com. There's a good article on there. And since I say how stuff works, is time for listener mail? All right, I'm gonna call this wonderful email from an eleven year old kid. We always love these. Hey, Josh and Chuck, I love listening to your podcast and it brings me great joy every day. I'm eleven years old, and I think your podcast is awesome for all ages

and is very informative. I'm learning so many new things. My mom is even surprised. I just wanted to let you guys know how happy you make me and how much fun I have listening to you, man. Nice, isn't that nice? I tell people all kinds of things they never know, and they're like, wow, how did you know that? And I say, I listen to how stuff works? Uh, thanks for your time, and stay awesome. That is Lucas, Lucas. You stay awesome. You stay awesome, and you start saying

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