Meet The Brooklyn Aquarium’s New, 234-Pound Baby Walrus
- Alaska Sea Life Center via New York Times
As part of Brooklyn Magazine‘s ongoing commitment to bringing you only the hardest, most serious Brooklyn news each day, it’s my obligation to discuss Mitik, the new walrus at the Brooklyn Aquarium. He’s a baby, weighs 234 pounds, and just flew here all the way from Alaska.
“Oh, that’s really cute,” you’re probably saying, “but it doesn’t really tug at my heartstrings in the way I expect hard news to do.” Well, guess what: he is also an orphan. And he flew all the way here with his head resting in his keeper’s lap. Oh, there’s more, of course.
After Mitik was found, he and another baby walrus were nursed back to health at the Alaska Sea Life Center, and he’s being brought to the Brooklyn Aquarium in part to serve as a companion for the institution’s aging walrus, Nuka. At first he had numerous health problems that made feeding difficult, but the Times reports that “he is now sucking assertively from a bottle and putting on a pound a day.”
“We say he is small, but scrappy — the perfect New Yorker,” said one of his handlers. We suspect this will come in handy if he has any run-ins with the new sharks that are also on the way.
Follow Virginia K. Smith on Twitter @vksmith.
