Body contact will save baby walrus

Feeding bottle every three hours and constant body contact – with that method animal keepers hope to save the life of a month-old walrus cub.

The 90-kilogram cub was found on Monday by oil workers in northernmost Alaska, more than half a mile from the ocean. How it ended up there is unclear and there were no traces of the mother. Normally, walrus cubs are dependent on their mother for two years, and in order for the cub to survive, it was flown over 100 miles to a marine center in Seward in southern Alaska.

The brown wrinkled giant baby was dehydrated and showing signs of infection but has started bottle feeding with formula.

In an attempt to mimic the close contact he would have had with his mother, the staff at the center, a research facility with a public aquarium, take turns cuddling him.

The walrus, a male, does not yet have a name and reports say nothing about his future fate.