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Environment & Energy

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stuntcat

(12,022 posts)
Wed Oct 2, 2013, 08:17 AM Oct 2013

10,000 Walrus Come Ashore in Northwest Alaska [View all]

An estimated 10,000 walrus unable to find sea ice over shallow Arctic Ocean water have come ashore on Alaska's northwest coast.

Scientists with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on Friday photographed walrus packed onto a beach on a barrier island near Point Lay, an Inupiat Eskimo village 300 miles southwest of Barrow and 700 miles northwest of Anchorage.

....

Young animals are especially vulnerable to stampedes triggered by a polar bear, a human hunter or a low-flying airplane. The carcasses of more than 130 mostly young walruses were counted after a stampede in September 2009 at Alaska's Icy Cape.

The gathering of walrus on shore is a phenomenon that has accompanied the loss of summer sea ice as the climate has warmed.




http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/10000-walrus-ashore-northwest-alaska-20436625
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