#seriously if you get the chance to go to a good facility that houses walruses DO IT!

[tintenfischie]

One of the few zoos in the US that has walruses is Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium in Tacoma, WA. There have been a few walruses there over the years, the most famous being the late E.T., whose video demonstrating walrus vocalizations has about 5.8 million views as of now:

He weighed over 3,400lbs and like most captive walruses, was rescued as an orphaned calf, in this case from Alaska. PDZA has also housed younger male walruses, Mitik and Pakak (aka, The Walrus Boys) until they were mature enough to be moved to another facility to hopefully mate with lady walruses.

Currently, there are two half-siblings, Balzak and Lakina, originally from Aquarium du Québec. True to their place of origin, these walruses are in fact bilingual!

people not realizing the extreme rarity of captive walruses is k i l l i n g me dear god. Just any old zoo does not have them! They are hard to transport, hard to care for, and hardly ever successfully breed in captivity so zoos only get them when an injured or orphaned individual gets picked up by a rescue in the arctic and is deemed unreleasable. That’s not a frequent occurrence! This isn’t a tiger king situation with backyard breeders all over the place!