Walruses Got Seabirds As Their Playing Partner For The First Time

To see someone playing with their pets is nothing exceptional, everyone is familiar with that thing. But, to see some animals are playing with other species of animals looks quite weird and exceptional. Researchers found such kind of surprising sight at the sea, by finding walruses playing with seabirds.

A group of zoologist from St. Petersburg University directed by Dr.Andrey Giljov started an observation on the Walruses at the Chukchi Sea near Russia. With the help of fellow zoologist Karina Karenina, Dr. Gilov spent more than a month observing a huge group of walruses. It was believed that 1.5-ton Walruses are the most humorless pinniped compared to other jovial sea lions and seals.

Dr. Gilov also included that walruses are poorly studied, creatures. They observed 74 encounters between walruses and birds and witnessed different kinds of plays like sneaking up on the floating seabirds to make them scared, playing drop-catch with the carcasses and attempting to slash them with their tusks. This is the first observation on this kind of species, according to the report by National Geographic.

Dr. Gilov wrote about his studies in the journal Acta Ethologica. There he said,”The reasons why young walruses engage in such behavior are probably the same reasons why all animals begin to play,Play may be important for the development of physical and social skills”.

Mail Online report says that seabirds are not dieted by walruses, shellfishes are their main diet. This playing behavior was mostly recorded in both immature males and females.

Although, Gilov also observed playing behaviors in the adult walruses and found 13 instances of males playing with birds, while only two cases found in females to play. In this game, birds have to end up losing their life, but they were not intentionally killed. Sometimes they play on a group, one walrus grabs a seabird carcass in its mouth while other walruses form a circle around the carcass holder to snatch the bird. If the carcass holder loses its grip then another walrus grabs the bird and takes its turn in the center of the circle. It’s just like a football game.