#umitamago

Izumi departed from the Oita Marine Palace Aquarium on February 7th, 11:15 JST and was expected to arrive to the Toba Aquarium early in the morning of February 8th, where she will go on public display that same day. The 13-year-old female walrus will remain in Toba for three months on breeding loan.⁣

There Izumi will be paired with their 13-year-old bull, Pou -- the two walruses were purchased by their respective facilities from the same dealer on the same day, and were among several walruses to be the very last imported into Japan in December of 2005.⁣

Prices for wild-caught walrus pups have been driven up in the last decade by an increase in Chinese aquariums; once a million yen, bidding now begins at 100 million yen and may go into the several hundred millions due to competition from Chinese facilities.⁣

Interestingly, the source states that two walruses have been born at Toba -- only one pup is known to me at this time, having been born in 2016 and explicitly stated by the aquarium to have been the first birth for their bull Pou and cow Kuu. In June of 2018 it was announced in the Mainichi Shimbun that the aquarium's walrus performance had been temporarily cancelled, due in part to "the possibility of pregnancy" from Kuu.⁣

Tomorrow, February 7th, 13-year-old female #walrus Izumi will be transferred from the Oita Marine Palace Aquarium to Toba Aquarium for the duration of a three month breeding loan, as part of a larger collaboration established in June of 2018 among Japanese facilities to pursue a stable and self-sustaining population of walruses in human care. ⁣

1,389 lb Izumi was chosen among the aquarium's three females for her relatively light weight, facilitating ease of transport, as well as for health considerations. Also housed at the aquarium, commonly known as Umitamago, are 17-year-old females Mii and Bubu.⁣

Izumi will be paired with Toba's 14-year-old bull Pou, who fathered a single calf born in 2016 -- the calf passed away several days later due to "a congenital anomaly of the circulatory system". Also housed at Toba are two cows, 14-year-old long-term resident Kuu, mother of the aforementioned calf, and 9-year-old Tsurara, who was born at the Otaru Aquarium and joined Toba's herd on breeding loan in 2016.⁣