Brooklyn’s biggest baby now has a name, and it’s a tongue-twister.
A walrus calf born at The New York Aquarium in June has been given the name Akituusaq. The name means “a gift given in return” and is taken from the Yupik language, indigenous to Eastern Russia and Alaska, where the walruses make their habitat.
Born on June 12th, the walrus calf weighed in at 115 pounds. Akituusaq will grow to be approximately 4,000 pounds.
The baby walrus is now on display at the aquarium. For an online peak, visit www.nyaquarium.com/babywalrus.
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This is unrelated to the previous posts, but if Johanna Clearfield happens to see this, I can only hope she takes heed. Ms. Clearfield, this is the second time I’ve personally heard of your comparing pigeons to a deregatory term used against people of African descent. That is utterly offensive and you must find more intelligent and unequivocal ways to voice your concern for pigeons.
November 16, 2007 — In calling pigeons “flying rats,” City Council Speaker Christine Quinn might as well have used “the n-word,” an animal-rights group charged yesterday.
After Brooklyn Councilman Simcha Felder this week proposed fining pigeon feeders $1,000, Quinn said she had “no use” for the “flying rats.”
Urban Wildlife Coalition founder Johana Clearfield wrote Quinn, slamming her as “clueless,” since “pigeons have nothing in common with rats” – and calling her comment an “epithet . . . much like the n-word.”
Johanna,
You have your facts wrong. The beluga whales were moved out of the New York Acquarium about two years ago.
Do not mean to be the heavy here, but the Brooklyn Aquarium is a horrible place for any marine animal – baby or no. They’ve got a whale swimming in circles whose gone blind from chlorine and several animal advocacy groups have been pleading for her release. See http://csiwhalesalive.org/csi04406.html for the gory details, but zoos and aquariums have long passed their sell-by dates. We need sanctuaries and conservatories where the animals can be protected in their natural habitat, not trapped in chlorine tanks with tourists noses pressed against the glass. Since I was little, zoos always struck me as being prisons and I never understood how or why anyone could enjoy watching animals locked up in cages or in small pens where they had no privacy. I hated them then, 40+ years later, I hate them still. Of course we all should love a new baby walrus, but not in Brooklyn and not at that horrid Aquarium.