male Atlantic walrus (O. r. rosmarus)
wild caught in September of 1883
deceased on December 16th of 1884
No known related animals.
capture 1883-Sep in Davis Strait
transfer 1883-Oct-04 to Dundee, Scotland
transfer 1883-Oct to Royal Aquarium
transfer 1884-Jan to Berliner Aquarium Unter den Linden
transfer 1884-May to Zoo Frankfurt
transfer 1884 to Zoo Dresden
transfer 1884 to Brighton Aquarium
transfer 1884 to Royal Aquarium
transfer 1884-Sep-15 to Austin & Stone's Monster Museum
transfer 1884-Oct-12 to Central Park Menagerie
transfer 1884-Oct-12 to Chestnut Street Dime Museum
transfer 1884-Nov-03 to Holmes' Standard Museum
transfer 1884 -Nov-17 to New York Museum
transfer 1884-Dec-01 to Harris' Masonic Temple Museum
transfer 1884-Dec-07 to Harris' Mammoth Museum
death 1884-Dec-16 in Harris' Mammoth Museum
It was mentioned in a single source that this walrus act was "underlined" at Broadway & Treyser's Dime Museum in Saint Louis. There are two gaps in his transfer history where he could have performed at this location — around Sep. 28th to Oct. 11th (which would be his second location in the US), and around Nov. 24th to Nov. 29th (his fifth or sixth location, depending on whether the walrus was moved during the aforementioned week). It is also possible that the walrus had been scheduled to perform at this location prior to his death, with the billing mistakenly not being pulled before posthumous publication.
The dates listed here generally represent the time at which the measurements were published, not necessarily the date on which they were taken.
1884-Apr-15: 85 kg · 187 lb
1884-Sep-15: "in the neighborhood of 800 pounds"
1884-Dec-11: "200 pounds"
1883-Oct-11: "between four and five feet"
1884-Sep-15: "about six feet long"
1884-Dec-11: "about six feet long"
1883-Oct-11: Salmon
1884-Apr-15: Incrementally 20, then 30, then 50 pounds of fresh haddock and cod per day
Uncle (nickname from keeper)
No images available at this time.
This walrus was nicknamed "Uncle" by his keeper, and called Wally by the media.
Wally was captured at approximately five months of age by Captain Walker and company aboard the whaling ship 'Polynia', after his mother had been shot and harpooned. The news of his capture had been telegraphed, and the ship was greeted upon return by representatives of German, American, and English exhibitors hoping to acquire the pup. The calf was ultimately purchased by William Leonard Hunt (under the pseudonymic surname of Farini) for the Royal Aquarium of London, where the young walrus was displayed alongside his mother's tusks. The calf made its public debut in London on October 6th of 1883.
On November 15th, 1883, specimens of the parasitic roundworms Ascaris bicolor (a now unaccepted synonym of Anisakis simplex [sensu lato]) collected from this walrus were presented by Dr. J. Murie to the Linnaean Society of London.
This walrus arrived at Berlin from London in mid-January 1884, and was afterwards scheduled to be exhibited at Zoo Frankfurt from May 10th to the 27th of that same year. The young bull's history in Europe after this is unclear; Ingvar Svangberg references the calf being exhibited at Dresden, though I was unable to find the source for this information, and can only assume he would have arrived there after Frankfurt and before his return to England. He was transferred to the Brighton Aquarium at "between fourteen and fifteen months old", which would have placed the date of transfer at approximately June or July of 1884.
This walrus departed from Liverpool on September 3rd and arrived in the United States on September 15th.
The walrus was trained by Dr. John Berry, who was often only referenced as "Mulatto" or "Negro". The walrus was said to have an 'astonishing attachment' to his 'masterful' trainer, who called him "dear dog" and "dear boy". The walrus was said to have been able to recognize his keeper by his walk before he was within sight, and would follow him closely at all times, even outside of his exhibit.
While walruses have been noted for their extreme intelligence and docility ever since the first calves were taken alive for display and trained in the early 1600s, this particular individual is the earliest well-documented example we currently have of advanced training with this species. This individual's keeper taught him numerous commands of varying complexity, from laying down and splashing water with his foreflippers to climbing a chair to play a tambourine and firing a revolver by pulling a string attached to the trigger.
A necropsy performed by Frank Thompson, of the Cincinnati Zoo, and Charles Dury, a taxidermist, revealed acute lung congestion.
Prior to his death, it had been planned to exhibit him in Chicago, Illinois after "a month or so", and was ultimately intended to return to London once he grew too large on his United States tour. Afterwards, intentions were expressed to display him as a taxidermy specimen at the Harris' Museum.
2010-Dec. Ingvar Svanberg. Walruses (Odobenus rosmarus) in Captivity. Retrieved from ResearchGate [archive]
1986. Viktoria Schmidt-Linsenhoff et al. Plakate 1880 - 1914. Retrieved from Google Books.
1884-Sep. Farini's Living Walrus. Retrieved from the Harvard Library.
1884-Sep-15. The Boston Globe. The Talking Walrus. Retrieved from newspapers.com.
1884. Neuen Zoologischen Gesellschaft. Ein junges Walroß in Gefangenschaft. Retrieved from Google Books.
1884-Apr-15. Otto Herman. Ueber das im Berliner Aquarium ausgestellte Walross. Retrieved from Biodiversity Library [archive]
1883-Nov-15. The Linnaean Society of London. Proceedings of the Linnaean Society of London (Session 1883-84). Retrieved from Oxford Academic [archive]
1883-Oct-11. The Flintshire Observer. A Live Walrus in London. Retrieved from The National Library of Wales [archive]