202 



NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA 74 



Northwind in the southern Chukchi Sea on 21 May 1954: 



She [the cow] sat more or less upright on her front flippers with her body at 

 right angles to the ship, distance approximately 300 yards. The posterior portion of 

 her body was turned somewhat laterally with the ventral side away from the ship. 

 When first seen, the calf was partly visible, steaming and wet appearing. As the 

 ship continued to approach, the female squirmed occasionally and looked back at 

 the newborn calf which gradually became more visible. It lay motionless for a 

 minute or so until the mother saw the ship and slid into the brash. The parent 

 promptly surfaced close by the floe and looked at the calf. It slowly wiggled to the 

 edge of the floe and fell into the brash and water. The cow dived with the calf, 

 [holding it] under her head and tusks. No sounds were heard from the cow or calf 

 and no umbilical cord attachment or actual severing of same by the female was 

 observed. A comparatively fresh afterbirth and another newborn calf were seen on 

 the same floe. 



A comparable first-hand account was related to me orally by one of the St. 

 Lawrence Islanders. 



Ryder also observed the presence of newborn calves and "fresh afterbirths (in 

 at least one instance, still steaming)" on three occasions, and I saw the same 

 twice. In each instance, the animals and placentas were on the ice, and there was 

 a large amount of blood on the snow around them. For this reason, I assume that 

 birth usually takes place on the ice, rather than in the water, though my basis for 

 this judgment is admittedly weak. One probable record of birth in the water was 

 reported to me by a group of Eskimos that had captured a cow with newborn 

 calf in an ice-free area, at least 30 km from the nearest floe. They claimed to 

 have had the swimming adult under observation for 15 to 20 min before the calf 

 suddenly appeared before her in the water. The St. Lawrence Islanders stated 

 that there had been very few previous sightings of births in the water. 



All but 2 of about 22 full-term pregnant and newly postpartum cows that I 

 saw in May and June were in semi-isolation, a few meters to 1 km from the 

 nearest herd of cows with older calves. The two exceptions were cows with 

 newly born calves on floes with more than 10 other adults and young. These 

 observations suggest that the cow usually elects to be alone when it gives birth, 

 rather than close to other animals. In none of the instances in my experience did 

 a cow with a newborn calf have any other youngsters with it, though many of 

 the near-term pregnant animals that I saw in March and early April were 

 accompanied by 2- and 3-year-old young. This suggests that the near-term cow 

 and her 2- or 3-year-old from the previous pregnancy usually separate in late 

 April, just before the new calf is born. 



Of eight cows with calves no more than 48 h old, only two were still at the site 

 of birth; in those instances, birth had taken place only a few minutes before, 

 judging from the warmth of the placenta. The Eskimos claim that the cow and 

 calf usually move to another, "clean" floe within minutes after birth, presumably 

 to free the calf of the fetal membranes and mucus and to avoid scavenging gulls 

 (especially Lartis hyperboreus) and fulmars {Fulmarus glacialis). 



Cows with calves that were more than about 2 days old tended to congregate 

 in herds, separate from the bulls and from all other females. These "nursery 

 herds" (Burns 1970) sometimes consist of more than 200 animals, though herds of 

 20 to 50 are most common. 



The social bond between mother and calf apparently is stronger in the walrus 



