Mass Natural Mortality of Walruses (Odobenus rosmarus) at St. Lawrence Island, Bering Sea, Autumn 1978
In October-November 1978, several thousand living walruses came ashore in at least four localities on St. Lawrence Island where they had not been present before in this century. They hauled out also at two other sites which they have occupied annually but in much smaller numbers. At least 537 animal...
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The Arctic Institute of North America
1980
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Online Access: | https://journalhosting.ucalgary.ca/index.php/arctic/article/view/65610 |
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ftunivcalgaryojs:oai:journalhosting.ucalgary.ca:article/65610 2023-05-15T14:19:17+02:00 Mass Natural Mortality of Walruses (Odobenus rosmarus) at St. Lawrence Island, Bering Sea, Autumn 1978 Fay, Francis H. Kelly, Brendan P. 1980-01-01 application/pdf https://journalhosting.ucalgary.ca/index.php/arctic/article/view/65610 eng eng The Arctic Institute of North America https://journalhosting.ucalgary.ca/index.php/arctic/article/view/65610/49524 https://journalhosting.ucalgary.ca/index.php/arctic/article/view/65610 ARCTIC; Vol. 33 No. 2 (1980): June: 221–381; 226-245 1923-1245 0004-0843 Animal behaviour Animal mortality Necropsy Walruses St. Lawrence Island Alaska info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion research-article 1980 ftunivcalgaryojs 2022-03-22T21:22:40Z In October-November 1978, several thousand living walruses came ashore in at least four localities on St. Lawrence Island where they had not been present before in this century. They hauled out also at two other sites which they have occupied annually but in much smaller numbers. At least 537 animals died on the haulout areas at that time, and approximately 400 other carcasses washed ashore from various sources. This was by far the greatest mortality of walruses ever recorded in an event of this kind. At least 15% of the carcasses on the haulouts were aborted fetuses, 24% were 5-6-month-old calves; the others were older animals ranging in age from 1 to 37 years old. About three-fourths of the latter on the haulouts were females; in the non-haulouts areas the sex ratio was about 1:1. Forty of the best preserved carcasses were examined by necropsy. The principal cause of death was identified as extreme torsion of the cervical spine, with resultant cerebrospinal hemorrhage, apparently due to traumatization by other walruses. Nearly all of the dead were extremely lean, having less than half as much subcutaneous fat as healthy animals examined in previous years. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Bering Sea Odobenus rosmarus St Lawrence Island Alaska walrus* University of Calgary Journal Hosting Bering Sea Lawrence Island ENVELOPE(-103.718,-103.718,56.967,56.967) ARCTIC 33 2 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
University of Calgary Journal Hosting |
op_collection_id |
ftunivcalgaryojs |
language |
English |
topic |
Animal behaviour Animal mortality Necropsy Walruses St. Lawrence Island Alaska |
spellingShingle |
Animal behaviour Animal mortality Necropsy Walruses St. Lawrence Island Alaska Fay, Francis H. Kelly, Brendan P. Mass Natural Mortality of Walruses (Odobenus rosmarus) at St. Lawrence Island, Bering Sea, Autumn 1978 |
topic_facet |
Animal behaviour Animal mortality Necropsy Walruses St. Lawrence Island Alaska |
description |
In October-November 1978, several thousand living walruses came ashore in at least four localities on St. Lawrence Island where they had not been present before in this century. They hauled out also at two other sites which they have occupied annually but in much smaller numbers. At least 537 animals died on the haulout areas at that time, and approximately 400 other carcasses washed ashore from various sources. This was by far the greatest mortality of walruses ever recorded in an event of this kind. At least 15% of the carcasses on the haulouts were aborted fetuses, 24% were 5-6-month-old calves; the others were older animals ranging in age from 1 to 37 years old. About three-fourths of the latter on the haulouts were females; in the non-haulouts areas the sex ratio was about 1:1. Forty of the best preserved carcasses were examined by necropsy. The principal cause of death was identified as extreme torsion of the cervical spine, with resultant cerebrospinal hemorrhage, apparently due to traumatization by other walruses. Nearly all of the dead were extremely lean, having less than half as much subcutaneous fat as healthy animals examined in previous years. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Fay, Francis H. Kelly, Brendan P. |
author_facet |
Fay, Francis H. Kelly, Brendan P. |
author_sort |
Fay, Francis H. |
title |
Mass Natural Mortality of Walruses (Odobenus rosmarus) at St. Lawrence Island, Bering Sea, Autumn 1978 |
title_short |
Mass Natural Mortality of Walruses (Odobenus rosmarus) at St. Lawrence Island, Bering Sea, Autumn 1978 |
title_full |
Mass Natural Mortality of Walruses (Odobenus rosmarus) at St. Lawrence Island, Bering Sea, Autumn 1978 |
title_fullStr |
Mass Natural Mortality of Walruses (Odobenus rosmarus) at St. Lawrence Island, Bering Sea, Autumn 1978 |
title_full_unstemmed |
Mass Natural Mortality of Walruses (Odobenus rosmarus) at St. Lawrence Island, Bering Sea, Autumn 1978 |
title_sort |
mass natural mortality of walruses (odobenus rosmarus) at st. lawrence island, bering sea, autumn 1978 |
publisher |
The Arctic Institute of North America |
publishDate |
1980 |
url |
https://journalhosting.ucalgary.ca/index.php/arctic/article/view/65610 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-103.718,-103.718,56.967,56.967) |
geographic |
Bering Sea Lawrence Island |
geographic_facet |
Bering Sea Lawrence Island |
genre |
Arctic Bering Sea Odobenus rosmarus St Lawrence Island Alaska walrus* |
genre_facet |
Arctic Bering Sea Odobenus rosmarus St Lawrence Island Alaska walrus* |
op_source |
ARCTIC; Vol. 33 No. 2 (1980): June: 221–381; 226-245 1923-1245 0004-0843 |
op_relation |
https://journalhosting.ucalgary.ca/index.php/arctic/article/view/65610/49524 https://journalhosting.ucalgary.ca/index.php/arctic/article/view/65610 |
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ARCTIC |
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33 |
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