Say I had a large farm, including a lake, in a place like northern Maine; could a walrus be kept as a pet in this kind of environment? I assume it would survive alright if it had a steady diet of fish during the cold season, but would the summer heat be too much for the animal? Would it sweat to death or die of heat stroke if it was exposed to the hot sun for too long?
Would it get bored without other walruses around, or could it have a decent time just living there by itself?
Walrus eat mollusks and things in the muck of the bottom. Unless you are planning on feeding it 200 pounds of herring or mackrel a day I doubt iot would survive in a 75 degree alpine lake.
Yes, but it can be expensive.
Don’t expect your walrus to settle for some fourth story walkup.
It’ll insist on a 2nd or 3rd floor studio, with a uniformed doorman and an elevator!
A Walrus is listed on CITES Appendix III at the request of Canada which means they are regulated to prevent unsustainable exploitation. You can import one and if you get a permit which will require that the animal was captive bred (they don’t say so, they say “not illegally obtained” but this generally means captive bred) and that it is shipped in a way that will not harm teh animal. In order to keep it, you will also need various permits at the Federal, State, and local level.
Getting those permits takes a couple years, including being rejected and appealing, so you will have plenty of time to study up. But in general, if you don’t know enough about them to answer those questions by yourself, you can’t get a permit. As you should not.
Chumley) Da-a-hee…A Gee Tennessee Mr Livingstone isn’t gonna like this
Tennessee Tuxedo) Don’t be ridiculous Chumley, he’ll love it.
For those of you who don’t know, it was Chumley not Tennessee that was the famous one. Stanley Livingstone, found Chumley living at the SOUTH POLE, with his best friend, Tennessee Tuxedo, a penguin. Thus Chumley was the world’s only South Pole Walrus, and Stanley Livingstone, wanted to bring Chumley to his zoo. But Chumley would only go if Livingstone took his BFF Tennessee Tuxedo
The first walrus I ever saw IRL was at an aquatic park in Galveston, Texas. It had apparently shed a lot of blubber in response to the warm weather. Its skin hung extremely loosely on its body. But it seemed to be healthy. It was doing tricks along with the sea lions in one of the shows.
The original is a real elephant seal at a waterpark in Japan. One of his tricks involved the bucket and sticking his tongue out. I know the story is on cheezburger somewhere.
