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Tag: Walruses

  • Man fined $50K in Vermont for illegally importing carvings made of sperm whale teeth, walrus tusk

    Man fined $50K in Vermont for illegally importing carvings made of sperm whale teeth, walrus tusk

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    Federal prosecutors say a California man has been fined $50,000 in Vermont for smuggling carvings made from sperm whale teeth and walrus tusk across the U.S.-Canadian border

    ByThe Associated Press

    October 20, 2023, 11:49 AM

    BURLINGTON, Vt. — A California man has been fined $50,000 in Vermont for illegally importing carvings made from sperm whale teeth and walrus tusk across the U.S.-Canadian border, federal prosecutors said.

    The man and his wife arrived at the Highgate Springs border crossing after buying nine Inuit carvings from an art gallery in Montreal, according to court papers. He told a U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer that he was bringing back one stone statue from Quebec, court papers said. The officer inspected the trunk and found nine statues, including four made of ivory, the Vermont U.S. attorney’s office said.

    The man, who was living in Cambridge, Massachusetts, at the time, admitted that the four were made from walrus tusk and Customs and Border Protection seized them. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service later determined that three of those carvings were made of sperm whale teeth and the fourth was made of walrus tusk, prosecutors said.

    The 69-year-old man on Tuesday pleaded guilty in federal court in Burlington to a misdemeanor charge of unlawfully importing wildlife parts and was sentenced to a fine of $50,000. A phone message was left with his attorney, seeking comment.

    Sperm whales are an endangered species and are protected under the Endangered Species Act and, like walruses, are also protected under the Marine Mammal Protection Act and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, the U.S. attorney’s office said.

    Certain import and export permits are required to import parts from these protected mammals into the U.S., which the man had not obtained, prosecutors said.

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  • Rescued walrus calf that was receiving cuddles as part of his care in Alaska dies

    Rescued walrus calf that was receiving cuddles as part of his care in Alaska dies

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    A walrus calf found alone and miles from the ocean on Alaska’s North Slope last week and who received cuddles as part of his care after being rescued has died

    FILE -In this photo provided by the Alaska SeaLife Center, a Pacific walrus pup rests his head on the lap of a staff member after being admitted to the center’s Wildlife Response Program in Seward, Alaska, on Tuesday, Aug. 1, 2023. A walrus calf found on its own miles from the ocean on Alaska’s North Slope last week and who received cuddles as part of his care after being rescued died on Friday, Aug. 11, 2023. (Kaiti Grant/Alaska SeaLife Center via AP, File)

    The Associated Press

    JUNEAU, Alaska — A walrus calf found on its own miles from the ocean on Alaska’s North Slope last week and who received cuddles as part of his care after being rescued died on Friday.

    “While often rewarding, wildlife rescue is inherently unpredictable and comes with it the possibility of great loss. For those that dedicate their lives to animal care, this is the hardest part of the job,” the Alaska SeaLife Center, the nonprofit research facility and public aquarium that was caring for him, said in a statement online.

    The Pacific walrus calf, taken in by the center on Aug. 1 after being found by oil field workers a day earlier, was struggling with a number of health issues, such as nutrient malabsorption. In the day before his death, he faced other complications, such as hypoglycemia and gastrointestinal problems, the center said.

    “Though our animal care teams worked tirelessly to provide round-the-clock critical care treatments, never leaving his side, the calf ultimately succumbed to his condition,” the center said. A necropsy is planned.

    The brown, wrinkly-skinned baby was believed to be about one-month old. The center last week said that in an effort to mimic the near-constant care a calf would get from its mom, the walrus was receiving “round the clock ‘cuddling’” to keep him calm and to aid in his development. The center described the cuddling as trained staff giving the walrus “the option to have a warm body to lean up against, which he has been taking advantage of almost constantly.”

    The range of the Pacific walrus includes the northern Bering and Chukchi seas, but the walruses are occasionally observed in areas like the Beaufort Sea to the northeast, according to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.

    The calf was found about 4 miles (6.4 kilometers) inland from the Beaufort Sea, in Alaska’s extreme north. A “walrus trail,” or track, was seen on the tundra near a road where the walrus was found. But it was unclear how, exactly, he got there, the center has said.

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