Walrus: Two Tonne Tusker Natural World

Meet Sivuqaq...

..an 18-year-old, larger-than-life Pacific walrus...

..who loves his food.

And a well fed walrus...

is a happy walrus.

By now, he should be a dad...

..but things haven't worked out.

Which is where Holley Muraco comes in.

Together, they have a very special relationship.

Kiss. Good boy.

An expert on animal reproduction,

Sivuqaq is proving to be her toughest challenge to date.

In zoos around the world, even pandas have been bred

more successfully than walruses,

so Holly is trying the near impossible.

The secret of walrus love is a mystery, but perhaps the clues

to success lie in exploring the lives of Sivuqaq's wild cousins.

Could they hold the key to helping him have a family of his own?

I think Sivuqaq is going to become a dad this year.

He's ready and we're definitely ready to have

that little bundle of joy walrus.

This is Ukuk, her name means Blubber,

and this is Siku, which is Eskimo for ice.

This is Keylu, her name means bark.

And this big guy right here, this is Sivuqaq,

which is the native Eskimo term for the village of Gambol,

which is where we got these guys.

It all began in 1994.

All these young walruses are orphans, their mothers having

been killed by hunters in the wild wastes of Alaska.

They were brought to Six Flags Discovery Kingdom in California,

where they were adopted by surrogate parents

who cared for them as they grew up.

If they'd not been rescued, they would have died young.

Sivuqaq is now three-and-a-half metres long,

and weighs 1,000 kilograms.

He's the park's main attraction.

For the past six years, he's shared his life with scientist

Holley Muraco.

During that time, they have forged quite a bond.

Good boy.

So these walruses respond a lot to blowing in their nose, so to speak.

All right.

DEEP GROWLING

It's walrus etiquette here that you walk in,

and it's rude if you don't say hello.

So you blow in their nose, they know who you are,

they get an idea of what's going on and then everything is OK.

Sivuqaq shares his Californian home with the two female orphans

who made it to adulthood.

OK, Ukuk.

Ukuk is the shy, modest, retiring one of the two.

Whistle!

LOW WHISTLING

Siku has a cheeky toothless grin.

Her tusks were removed after an infection.

She's much more blase and easy going.

The girls are very sharp, they're very smart animals,

even he's very smart.

Yes, you are!

But his brain tends to check out sometimes,

especially when he's hormonal and he's in rut,

and he's a bit of a knuckle-head. He's not all there.

He's getting ready to blow some snot.

Walruses are truly remarkable animals.

LOUD GROWL

Their name is thought to come from a combination of whale and horse.

There are Pacific and Atlantic walruses living in the Arctic seas

around the North Pole.

They belong to the same family as seals and sea lions.

Both males and females have whiskers

and tusks which they use to drag themselves out of the water.

They can weigh the same as a small family car,

but we still know very little about how they live their lives.

Sivuqaq is helping to change all that.

After almost 20 years of scrutiny by US scientists,

he is now the most studied walrus ever, but one thing

in particular remains mysterious - their breeding behaviour.

Holley wants to change this and help Sivuqaq become a dad.

She's working hard to make it happen.

She has helped breed dolphins...

..elephants...

..giraffes...

..and sea lions.

But breeding walruses is proving to be a different kettle of fish.

The reason why it's so important to be able to breed walruses in zoos

is because every zoo is always striving to be self-sustaining,

so that we can have long-term populations, so understanding

reproduction and being able to have babies in a zoo is very important.

Male and female walruses have been housed together in US zoos

and parks for almost 80 years,

yet, in all that time, there have been just 15 live births.

Routine hormone tests indicate Siku may be pregnant.

Today is the day she'll find out.

-Which way does she roll?

-She'll probably roll your way.

A pregnancy would be a really big event for everyone.

-Oh, right.

-Hold it. All right, Dessa.

-Let's see what we see.

-The timing is now.

-Hold it.

Good, Siku.

Right now, it's not looking so good.

I'm not seeing her uterus with much fluid at all.

Well, that's disappointing.

Yeah, that is.

-But...

-We try again.

-..we try again.

You just need a baby in there.

Unfortunately, we will not have any babies this spring.

Neither Siku or Ukuk are currently pregnant.

We had a lot of hopes that they were,

but something wasn't quite right,

and it's very disappointing, but unfortunately we are going to

have to go into another breeding season and try all over again.

Holley has been trying to breed the walruses for the past six years,

and this isn't the first time she's been disappointed.

One year in particular stands out,

when she came to within a whisker of success.

In 2010, Ukuk did get pregnant.

About a week before she gave birth,

the foetus died

and Ukuk ultimately delivered a stillborn.

The only way to say it is...Ukuk grieved.

And for two days, she cared for the baby, she called to it,

she held it, she nuzzled it

and it was absolutely devastating.

It took her a long time before she finally came back around

and her wonderful personality started coming out again.

After so many years of failure, heartache

and disappointment, Holley really needs a breakthrough.

And perhaps the clues are not here in the lab, but further afield...

..with the wild walruses back in Sivuqaq's native home in Alaska.

Here comes Sivuqaq.

But she can't leave without saying goodbye to her special walrus.

Hey, buddy, how's it going?

We have very nosy walruses that love to see everything that we do.

All right, Sivuqaq, I have to go to Alaska.

I am going to go learn about wild walruses.

I'm going to miss you, but the girls are going to feed you and feed you

and feed you while I'm gone, and I will see you when I get back.

LOUD SPLUTTERING

Holley's heading in search of a haul out -

a mass gathering of male walruses,

which happens during the summer months on remote beaches.

It's what Sivuqaq would be doing in the wild.

Holley begins her journey with a 2,000 mile flight

to Anchorage, Alaska.

From there, she takes a second flight to Lake Clark,

before heading along the Alaskan Peninsular,

which separates the Bering Sea from the North Pacific.

As she heads further and further into the wilderness,

the planes get ever smaller.

And for good reason.

She's heading to a walrus haul out at Cape Seniavin -

a rugged sea-sculptured beach on the Bering Sea coast.

And there are no runways out here,

so the plane must be small enough to land on a narrow stretch of beach.

Holley's never travelled this far north before.

She's studied her walruses for six years,

but has never seen one in the wild.

GULLS CAW

In recent years, this has become

one of the most important haul out areas in the whole of Alaska.

Its remoteness allows them to gather here safely,

and Holley must take care not to disturb them.

So, we're close enough to the walrus herd now to smell them.

It's a pretty intense smell, they're not the cleanest animals.

We're still approaching extremely cautiously,

we just can't be too careful.

There's just so little known about walruses.

We have no idea how great their eyesight is

or their sense of smell or hearing,

but we do know they're very spooky animals

and we have to be careful, so we're just approaching very slowly

and cautiously, but, so far, they're just jostling among themselves

and don't seem too concerned with our presence, at this time.

See, very carefully, making sure I don't disturb them.

Oh, my goodness.

Absolutely amazing.

There's about 150 to 200 Sivuqaqs lying together on this beach.

Look at all that bulk.

Oh, these guys easily outweigh Sivuqaq by at least 1,000 pounds.

Oh, my goodness. Look at the size of that guy.

Amazing.

Sivuqaq probably wouldn't make it very long out here, I'm guessing.

He's a bit too much of a pretty boy.

The one thing that's so interesting about these male walruses is

those large bumps that you see on these wild males

all over their neck, and we don't see that on Sivuqaq.

We sort of assumed that they're formed

when they hit one another with their tusks,

but there's another theory suggesting that it's just

male walruses, as they reach maturity, develop them naturally,

but then Sivuqaq's a mature male and he doesn't have any,

so that's another walrus mystery.

A red fox makes a guest appearance.

The long arctic winter appears to have taken its toll,

but the beach is a good place to scavenge for food.

The walruses keep a close eye, as the fox gets closer.

Despite their size, they're nervous.

They're off.

The fox has sent these giants,

perhaps 300 times its own weight, running for cover.

Surely one of the natural world's greatest mismatches.

Seemingly unaware of the chaos she has caused, the fox checks out

a dried up walrus carcass,

then leaves a calling card

to let everyone know whose territory this really is...

..and exits stage left.

With the walruses now all at sea,

it's a good time to call it a day and head back to camp.

Although late in the evening, there are still two hours of daylight left

before the sun briefly dips below the horizon.

It's easy to lose track of the time out here.

This far north, summer lasts only three months,

but the long days mean it's a time of great productivity.

Plants photosynthesise all day and all night,

and, for a few short months, the tundra blooms.

For some animals, it's a chance to rear their young,

but, for the walruses, it's the opposite - this is when they recharge

their batteries, having barely eaten during the winter breeding season.

Wild walruses feed by rooting along the sea bottom,

foraging on over 60 different kinds of marine creatures.

Clams are their favourite, which they find with their sensitive whiskers,

excavate with jets of water, then suck out the meat.

Each one is devoured in just six seconds.

And up to 6,000 in a day.

It may look destructive, but walrus feeding helps keep the Arctic seas

amongst the richest in the world.

Disturbing the sediment releases nutrients, which feed the fish.

Their organic waste trickles back down to the seabed,

feeding the clams and other creatures of the sea floor.

This trickle down not only enriches life on the sea bottom,

but ultimately provides more food for the walruses.

During midsummer, this far north, it's hard to know where night ends

and day begins,

but it does mean Holley can make the most of her time with the herd.

At the haul out, she discovers more big males

dragging themselves out onto the beach.

As they emerge from the cold water, they're a ghostly white,

having redirected blood from their skin to their hearts

and other internal organs.

As they warm, blood returns to the surface and they turn pink.

Those that have been beached the longest return

to their characteristic rich ruddy-brown.

But right now, there is no aggression.

All these males are sort of in a big love-in right now.

They're all very happy to be together.

As the season progresses and their testosterone starts to rise,

this is going to change dramatically.

That change won't happen until later in the year,

when shorter days trigger a dramatic shift in male walrus behaviour

and they enter the rut - the peak of their sexual activity.

Right now, in midsummer, these walruses could not be

more different from Sivuqaq.

One thing that's really clear is Sivuqaq is really out of sync.

Right now, these males are not displaying

any type of rut behaviour.

It's a bachelor pad, they're all hanging out,

they're gaining weight, they're resting,

they're getting prepared for the breeding season.

Just a week ago, when I left Sivuqaq,

he still was maintaining rut behaviours and displaying

and singing and trying to attract the females for breeding, and it's

clearly out of sync with what his wild counterparts are doing.

Holley heads back to California with an important task ahead of her.

Somehow, she must switch Sivuqaq's sexually active period from

summer to winter, to match the sexual peak of his female companions.

Walruses' behaviour in the Arctic is set by the day length.

Summer is the time for rest and relaxation.

Winter, migrating and mating.

But Sivuqaq is on California time.

He has never experienced anything like the Arctic, so his rut

happens in the spring and summer, rather than the autumn and winter.

As a result, he, Siku and Ukuk are completely out of sync,

like ships passing in the night.

Hey, bud!

How's it going?

Holley must somehow match what is happening in the wild,

so first begins to fatten him up.

Time for the weigh-in.

But how do you weigh a walrus?

With a set of scales, of course...

..extra large scales.

I know.

It would appear Sivuqaq is a little bashful about his bulk.

Over the next four months, they must increase Sivuqaq's weight

to around 1,600 kilograms - about the weight of a small family car.

Sivuqaq is 24, 25 and he's up 33 pounds.

There is still a very long way to go.

Between meals, Sivuqaq gets a special treat,

and an opportunity to show off another of his many talents.

His suction is so strong, he makes easy work of turning

a ten kilogram block of ice into a cool refreshing drink.

Walruses use suction to feed.

The tongue acts like a piston,

first pushed forward to the front of the mouth

and then quickly withdrawn, creating a vacuum.

It's been said walruses can create enough suction to suck

the skin off a seal, but Sivuqaq's friends at the park needn't worry -

he'd much rather eat fish.

Surrounding those powerful lips are the walruses'

most characteristic feature - their moustache.

Called vibrissae, they form a broad mat of up to 700 stiff bristles -

highly sensitive feelers

capable of detecting food beneath the silty sea bottom.

Walruses are really oral animals.

It makes sense cos, out in the wild, they're foraging for their food

on the bottom and feeling for clams and different things.

Here, we don't obviously have foraging for them,

so, when we give them their fish and their clams to eat,

they still enjoy foraging, so to speak,

and so what Sivuqaq's doing right now is...

He keeps a little bit of fish from the last bit that we feed him

and he's essentially playing with it.

Everybody thinks it's disgusting, it's really gross,

but, again, it's a natural behaviour that they do,

it's obviously an important part of their life,

and if it's fun for him, then that's our problem to deal with.

Sivuqaq is now getting through 30 kilograms of fish every day.

Gorging like this prepares him physically for the rut,

which lasts about three months.

During that time, he will drastically lose his appetite,

so the food he eats now will need to see him through.

With his weight rapidly increasing,

Holley can start the next stage of his treatment.

Every week, Sivuqaq gets an injection of HCG -

human chorionic gonadotropin.

This is a precursor to testosterone...

..so that his body can make natural testosterone.

So, right now, Jessa is getting ready to give him the injection.

She's going to prep his back, it's just got to go...

Hold it.

This is exactly the same medication that is used

in human fertility treatments.

Boosting his testosterone should artificially induce his rut,

and hopefully get him in sync with the girls.

But it takes two to tango,

and Siku and Ukuk must also be ready at the right time.

They only have a narrow window during which they can conceive -

a matter of days - so timing will be everything.

Holley runs regular checks to monitor how they are doing.

-I'm ready.

-All right, Siku, open. Hold it.

Oh, good. So, one of the things we can do...

..is take a simple swab of the inside of their mouth

and around their tongue...

Good, good girl.

We usually get a couple of swabs' full,

and this can be used to test hormone levels.

-Really, science is boring?!

-OK!

Although still warm in California,

things are beginning to cool down in the Arctic.

The nights are now much longer than the days,

and this change of season is triggering

the start of the rut in the wild.

So, to discover more about what happens next in wild walruses,

Holley heads back out to Alaska.

Having spent the last six months apart,

the males and females are gradually coming back together.

The males have left their summer haul out and swim north,

while the females are floating south on the sea ice.

Many will meet in the southern Bering Sea, around St Lawrence,

which has been nicknamed the walrus capital of the world.

This is the island where Sivuqaq, Siku and Ukuk

were rescued as orphans, all those years ago -

the place where it all began.

-Welcome to Savoonga.

-Thank you.

-You're welcome.

-Thank you.

During the Cold War, St Lawrence Island

was strategically important to the US,

and home to a large military base.

Now, this island community survives by hunting

and harvesting what they can from the sea.

Holley is here to find out more about the walrus's

unique rutting behaviour...

..but conditions are not looking good.

The local people have told me that, normally,

this time of year, there is ice out here,

but, this year, there is no ice.

Because the ice retreated so far north this summer,

it takes longer to come back.

Sea ice conditions can change quickly in the Bering Sea,

so Holley has to be patient and hope that a shift in the wind

direction will bring the ice sheets and the walruses closer to land.

The stormy seas may not be ideal for walrus watching,

but they are washing up a bumper harvest for the villagers,

including a bizarre animal that resembles a fruit.

This is a sea peach,

and they have found these in walrus stomachs before.

The native people,

one of their favourite meals is to cook the sea peach alongside

the walrus meat.

It's a very special delicacy.

Well, can you tell me about all of this wonderful food?

Oh, these are walrus food.

This is what the walruses eat... The clams.

That's a big clam.

We slice 'em up and eat 'em.

Here is a... Here is a good one.

Do you want to taste it? It's pretty good.

All right, here goes.

I'm eating it, real walrus food.

I'm watching!

Uh-huh, it's real good.

-It is good.

-Uh-huh.

-Wow.

Still no sign of any walruses.

But if they're not here, then where are they?

Female walruses and their young are normally spread out

over thousands of square miles of sea ice.

Over recent years, the Arctic ice has been reducing,

forcing them to haul out on exposed beaches instead,

and that can have dire consequences.

In 2011, one of the largest walrus gatherings in living memory

occurred at Point Lay, Alaska.

Numbering nearly 20,000, this haul out

accounted for almost a tenth of the entire Pacific walrus population.

Far from safety in numbers, these mass haul outs

result in the rapid spread of disease.

But, most worrying of all

were reports of hundreds of walruses trampled to death during stampedes.

And wherever walruses come on land, they are vulnerable to

attack by the Arctic's most fearsome predator.

An adult walrus can weigh twice as much as a polar bear.

It seems a daunting challenge,

even for the world's largest land carnivore.

The mothers put up a wall of hide and blubber to protect their calves.

By rushing in, the bear spreads panic.

In the chaos, some get separated.

The bear spots an opportunity, but must avoid injury.

Stabbing tusks could easily puncture a bear's skull.

But, in this case, the walrus hide,

which can be nearly ten centimetres thick,

proves to be its greatest defence.

The bear loses its grip

and its chance of a big meal.

On St Lawrence, the sea ice and the walrus

still show no sign of arriving,

so Holley takes this opportunity to visit some of the villagers.

And all of these pieces here are fossilised?

Uh-huh, these are fossilised...

Joseph Akeya is a fisherman and a hunter.

He also dives in these freezing waters

to collect fossilised walrus remains.

-Where someone has cut into it?

-Yeah.

By hand, probably.

-This was found inland, somewhere.

-Wow.

So you see the walruses all year round, somewhere around here?

Somewhere on the island, always, there's walruses somewhere.

They're not going to be in one place,

they're going to be moving,

along with the wind, maybe,

-along with the current, or their food.

-Right.

You say you go diving out here in this water

and you have heard walruses?

I have heard walruses.

They make some kind of a whistling sound, like...

HE MAKES LOW PITCH SOUND

And then, after a while, like...

Tuk-tuk-tuk-tuk-tuk-tuk.

Maybe from their teeth or tusks, maybe.

Uh-huh, but it's a knock?

Like hammering something... Tuk-tuk-tuk...

The sounds Joseph describes are very similar to those that Sivuqaq makes

and village elder Larry Kava has also heard sounds

and seen intimate walrus behaviour not recorded by science.

-HIGH PITCHED SINGING:

-Inya-ing-ing.

Inya-ing-ing.

It's time for Holley to leave.

She hasn't seen a single walrus, but is still taking something home

from this remote and extraordinary place.

The importance of walrus song to their courtship has been confirmed

by the Yupik hunters, and Holley will be listening

to the calls of her Californian walruses with renewed interest.

As the arctic winter approaches, the mating season begins,

and the walrus song will peak.

Perhaps sound could be the key to success.

Back at the park, Sivuqaq's hormone treatment is making him

increasingly vocal, just like the walruses in the wild.

Sivuqaq's mood is extremely grumpy, irritable.

I am going to be keeping my distance from him

because he's very unpredictable right now,

he is in...he's in the peak of his rut.

SIVUQAQ MAKES CLICKING SOUNDS

In the wild this is a very typical normal rut behaviour.

SIVUQAQ GROWLS

What we have to do during these few months when he's just grumpy,

and irritable, and cranky, and unpredictable

is just give him his space, give him his distance and wait him out.

SIVUQAQ CLICKS MELODICALLY

Sivuqaq can certainly knock out a tune.

SIVUQAQ CONTINUES CLICKING

HE GROWLS

HE HISSES

Scientists are just beginning to realise that the richness

and complexity of walrus songs could rival that of whales.

Now having heard it from the Yupik hunters,

Holley knows that getting him singing at the right time

could be vital to them breeding.

HE GROWLS

Sivuqaq has long been something of a drama queen.

He has over 75 different sounds and often uses them to show off.

In his younger days, Sivuqaq hit the heady heights of Hollywood.

This began when Spielberg used his growl for the call

of the T Rex in Jurassic Park,

and continued with other voice roles in Star Wars,

Lord Of The Rings and The Hobbit.

Not content with his bit-part as a voice-over artist,

he then stepped up to the plate,

acting alongside Adam Sandler in Fifty First Dates.

Now his unusual voice may just land him his biggest role yet -

the romantic lead.

Hold it, hold it.

Time for Holley and her team to take some sperm to see

if six months of treatment has helped get him ready to sire some pups.

Hold it, hold it.

Good Sivuqaq, good. Easy, good boy.

Good, good boy, keep going, good, good boy, keep going, easy.

-OK.

-Good boy.

Holy moly, sassy pants!

Sivuqaq!

Sivuqaq has just had his 18th birthday and should be in prime, sexual health

but will he be at the peak of his sexual prowess?

Well, the good news is we have plenty of sperm.

So our efforts for making Sivuqaq go into rut

has been successful

and we have a really, really nice motility,

that means the sperm is moving in a forward direction

and most of it is alive and looking really good.

And this is what we want for optimal fertility.

So with our females coming into oestrus, this is exactly what

we want to see, so really good news here.

HE GROWLS

GROWLING ECHOES ACROSS PARK

Sivuqaq is physically ready, but now must be in full voice

and at his most charming during Siku and Ukuk's short breeding window.

Holley has placed microphones around their pool to monitor their sounds.

RHYTHMIC KNOCKING SOUND

The sound that Sivuqaq is making right now...

..is a rhythmic knocking sound.

And if you look carefully at his head while he's knocking,

you can see his head vibrating and we don't understand

exactly how he's producing those sounds.

The other sound that he loves to make

is he claps his flippers together.

RHYTHMIC CLAPPING OF FLIPPERS

And there's a rhythm to the clapping.

I don't have any rhythm but he's very good at it

and sometimes he'll knock and he'll clap at the same time.

CONTINUES CLAPPING

It's a display that he does to make himself look big and strong.

And you can feel the vibration through this very thick glass.

It's very powerful.

And now he's inflating his throat sacs.

Walruses have these enormous sacs in their necks

that they can fill with air and it makes a really interesting

and almost beautiful sound when they fill it full of air.

GENTLE GURGLING

Now he's clapping and knocking at the same time.

CONTINUES CLAPPING AND KNOCKING

It's a remarkable thing to hear.

You can imagine that, in the wild,

the males are sending out all of these sounds

and they're travelling for miles attracting the females.

Sivuqaq is in full song.

If Holley's work has been a success, then all she can do now

is sit back and wait for the magic to happen.

SIVUQAQ CLAPS

What happens during walrus mating is one of the best-kept secrets

in the natural world.

Until now.

This is walrus love.

It's not the most gentle thing you'll ever see

but when you're 3,000 and 2,000 pounds you can handle it.

This is the first time that this behaviour has ever been filmed.

In the wild, it happens in complete darkness around the edge

of the sea ice in the frozen Bering Sea.

In six years of studying these guys

I have never seen what we've just witnessed.

Ukuk must be right at the peak of her oestrus

because she came over, solicited Sivuqaq, which we've seen before,

but then they immediately started copulating right here

in front of the window and it lasted for at least five minutes

and the way they were together was remarkable.

HE GURGLES

At last Holley has seen them mating,

proof that her treatments are working.

And her microphones have revealed something new to science.

Not only is Sivuqaq singing to the girls,

it sounds like the girls are singing back.

Siku, your voice was really impressive

when you were singing your song,

but Sivuqaq really seemed to like Ukuk

and hers was really different and interesting,

so, I don't know, what does it mean?

GURGLING

This sound is Ukuk calling.

Siku, do you remember this?

Do you remember making all those sounds? You were singing.

This is Siku with a very different call.

LOW HOWLING

And this has never been documented before and we have no idea

if this takes place in the wild or if it doesn't, but this is

really exciting information, so I don't know, what does it mean?

Does it mean anything at all? What do you think?

THEY WHISTLE

I sure wish you two could talk.

But there's still a long way to go

until she hears the pitter-patter of tiny fins.

From conception to birth takes up to 16 months.

Until recently this was thought to be

one of the longest pregnancies in the natural world.

But research now suggests that female walruses

delay implanting the fertilised egg into the womb for four months,

so that the calf is born in the spring

when the weather conditions are best suited to its survival.

In the wild, mothers and calves live in nursery groups

well away from the large herds of big clumsy males.

The calves can swim within hours of birth,

but at first rarely stray far from their mother's side,

who protect them by holding them close.

They stay together for up to three years,

forging a bond that provides an opportunity to learn

life's most important lessons,

such as how to communicate, to share food, nurse one another's young,

and to help other herd members when under attack.

If either Siku or Ukuk give birth,

then Holley must be part of the nursery group.

It's so she can keep a close eye on the health of the calf.

So, complete trust is essential,

and she gains that by playing with them.

Playtime with these girls is a very important bonding time,

and this is going to be really good if we do end up with

two pregnant walruses and two babies.

We're going to want to be able to get close

to these...these calves.

We need them to trust us, to know that it's going to be OK

if they share their calves with us.

There's nothing more to do now except relax

and wait for nature to take its course.

On your back.

Hold it.

It's April. Winter has turned to spring

and the eggs should now be implanted into the womb.

Holley's about to find out

if six years of research has been a success.

Right now, I'm checking...

Siku's uterus.

She actually has two uterine horns,

I have to check both of them, the right and the left,

to see if we see any fluid start to build up.

This will be the first indication that we're on our way towards a pregnancy.

This is all very new. There is no information out there to help us.

Nobody's written a book that says,

"This is what you should be looking for,"

so we're sort of writing the book as we go.

Siku's very nosy.

She always wants to know what's happening with her ultrasounds.

Now, on Siku today, I did see signs that she may have

the very start to some uterine fluid.

What do you think, Siku?

You're not talking, are you? No.

But right here I have a bright white patch

and a bright white patch that indicates that I could be

looking at about two centimetres worth of fluid in her uterine horn.

So if that's the case, then as I continue to watch this each week

it will grow and hopefully we'll see a baby in that left uterine horn.

Siku looks great and Ukuk looks great, they both are just perfect.

One pregnant walrus would be a great result.

Two would be extraordinary.

Holley's work is providing invaluable insights

into the breeding biology of these unique creatures,

but, best of all, it's helping a friend.

I think Sivuqaq is going to become a dad this year.

I feel confident.

He is ready and we're definitely ready

to have that little bundle of joy walrus.

From a four-month-old, 70 kilogram orphan,

to an 18-year-old, two tonne potential father.

Now that IS something to shout about.

HE GROWLS LOUDLY

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd