Walruses seek shelter on land

摘要

Roughly 10,000 walruses have come ashore in Alaska (pictured) because of a lack of sea ice, the Associated Press reported on 1 October. The animals began gathering on a barrier-island beach near the village of Point Lay in mid-September, according to aerial surveys conducted by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Female walruses and their calves normally spend the summer and early autumn in the Chukchi Sea, drifting north on sea ice that gives them a platform from which to dive for clams, worms and snails. But a lack of ice this year forced them to shelter on land, placing the skittish animals at risk of stampede as they crowd together. In 2009， 130 young walruses died in a stampede near Icy Cape, Alaska.