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© WCS/Julie Larsen Maher
As general curator of the Aquarium, Dave DeNardo is responsible for managing the care and facilities for its 8,000 aquatic residents. Under his direction, giant lobsters and rare sea jellies have come to live at the park, the sea lion family has grown, and millions of visitors have passed through the Aquarium’s gates to ogle them all. But one thing that no one—not even Dave—has seen here before is a newborn walrus.
Naturally, when the staff discovered Kulu was pregnant, Dave had a lot of questions . . . and a few worries. Would the labor be hard on Kulu? Would she be able to produce enough milk? Would the new mom take to her calf?
The birth was full of surprises for the man who thought he’d seen it all. “We thought the baby would come out breach [rear end first], like a sea lion. But in the late afternoon, its muzzle appeared, just like a human baby crowning. At 4:17 p.m., after a five-hour labor, the baby was born. The next morning, the placenta passed without complication, and the baby nursed for ten minutes—we knew then that we were out of the woods.”
Now that Kulu has proven to be such a model mother, Dave can put his worries aside and focus on the many milestones to come. He’s eager to watch the baby take his first deep dive, explore his new habitat, and learn to work with the trainers. And in the meantime, he is awestruck just watching the new pair bond.
“One day I caught the two of them napping, with the calf nuzzled against mom’s belly. I could see Kulu’s flipper very gently stroking the baby’s back. I remembered watching my wife in the rocking chair holding our newborn daughter in exactly the same pose!” |
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