Alaska walrus deaths: criminal investigation launched

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A criminal investigation has been opened in the US state of Alaska into the deaths of 25 Pacific walrus found dead last week on an isolated beach.

The animals were found near Cape Lisburne on the Chukchi Sea about 370km north-east of the Bering Strait.

Initial reports said that the 12 pups and 13 adults - some without tusks - had been shot, prompting fears that they were killed by ivory poachers.

But officials say they cannot comment until the investigation is completed.

Two officers from the US Fish and Wildlife Service have been sent to the area to carry out the inquiry.

Andrea Medeiros, a spokeswoman for the agency's regional office, told the Alaska Dispatch News that preliminary reports suggested that the animals had been shot and in some case decapitated.

But she said it was not possible definitively to identify the cause of the deaths.

US law stipulates that only Alaskans who live in the state are entitled to hunt walrus which cannot be killed solely for their ivory - it is illegal to waste walrus meat.

Walrus ivory is used for jewellery and crafts. Skulls with tusks attached are collectors' items, correspondents say.

Reports of the deaths come as conservationists fear that climate warming has reduced summer sea ice which walrus use as a platform from which to rest and dive for clams, sea snails and other food. As ice melts, the animals migrate north to find new feeding areas.

When no floes of Arctic sea ice are available, the animals usually head to nearby beaches.

Ms Medeiros was quoted by KNBA News as saying that the fact that some of the animals' tusks appeared to have been "harvested" along with their oosiks - the prized walrus penis bone - did not necessarily mean they were killed illegally.

Large numbers of walrus were first spotted congregating on the US side of the Chukchi Sea in 2007.

An estimated 35,000 animals were pictured in October hauling themselves on to land north of Point Lay, about 500km (310 miles) south-west of Barrow.

When in large herds the animals are known to stampede - sometimes squashing their young - if they are suddenly disturbed.

Walrus facts