Until now…
In the Quebec City Aquarium, a mother walrus named Arnaliaq has reportedly given birth to a healthy pup while it was in captivity on Saturday, May 8th. No aquarium staff were present at the time of the birth, and instead, the event was caught by nothing other than security cameras pointed at the walrus.
The footage of the mother caring for her newly-born pup, which was shared on Facebook by the aquarium, can be watched below:
“Right now everything is going perfectly," Quebec City aquarium director of animal conservation Jill Marvin said. "We're very, very pleased. The baby's milking. Mom is taking such excellent care of him.”
The event made Arnaliaq a mother just one day before Mother’s Day of 2016, giving her something to celebrate this year.
Arnaliaq is reportedly nursing her baby on her own and aquarium staff have not interfered. The mother and her pup are secluded from any other animals to prevent any problems with the pup’s health.
Its gender has not yet been specified.
Miraculously, there appears to be a second pregnant walrus mother at the very same aquarium. Named Samka, the second pregnant walrus has an estimated delivery date of June of this year, which would mark the second ever walrus birth in an aquarium in Canada.
These births together will mark only the seventh and eighth walrus births in the North American continent since the year of 1930, CBC reports.
Because it’s such a rare occurrence, there is little data about walrus breeding and birthing. This is why the mother and pup are being left alone and carefully studied before humans intervene.
Source: Quebec City Aquarium via CBC