The Smile Of The Walrus (1978)

[music] An explosion of birds heralds the coming of spring to Alaska's Walrus Islands in Bristol Bay. Southernmost hallout grounds of the massive Pacific walrus. In this walrus sanctuary, permanent residents, elderly survivors of migration's past, set off chain reactions as they fence for choice rocks warmed by the sun. All over the beering sea in the annual spring migration, many thousands of younger bulls and females launch into the strong current now running northward toward the seas of ice, which will help transport them to the rich clam beds of the Arctic. Fast running currents of the Bearing Sea give the wares a free ride northward. In spite of the heavy toll they've paid to wellers and hunters for many years, they have endured. Their ordeal is evoked in an [music] old nursery rhyme. Did you ever see a war smile all these many years? Why yes, I've seen a wall smile, but it was hidden by his tears. [music] The durability of the walrus is largely due to the natural protection of the vast seas of ice. Philipe Kustoau and divers approaching the bearing straight on route to St. Lawrence Island. Look down upon family pods of walruses journeying slowly toward the Arctic on floating ice plains. Here on the ice after a year's gestation, cows give birth to single calves, an event never observed by man. Safe from killer whales, polar bears, and humans, the walrus population, once reduced to less than 100,000 beings, is now slowly increasing. Winds up to 100 m an hour are not an uncommon phenomenon in the village of Gamble. For snowbound Eskimos, there is ivory to be carved to traditional songs. >> Seated upon the floor, the carver works at his trade while his wife sews a raincoat made of stretched walrus and trails. The Calver's wife was tattooed when she became a bride. The traditional song becomes a singing commercial as the artisan appeals to cities and states where he hopes to sell his carvings. >> Carving show to >> Yeah. San Francisco by carving for states. All these states I see. Order me some carving. >> You see me now. >> Work long time. Raw ivory can no longer be exported, but must be carved, enhancing [music] its value and providing employment when joblessness here approaches 90% in the winter. In this barren land, the walrus has always been almost exclusively the determinant [music] of the Eskimo's existence. But with the coming of the whalers came decades of wholesale slaughter for oil [music] and skins for foreign markets. Then came the head hunters, robbing adult walruses of their tusks for ivory chest figures and luxury ornaments. Finally, the harpoon gave way to the musket. Herds were thinned until for the protection of the walruses, regulative laws were passed. Kustoau and the Calypso team will take advantage of a short break in a relentless series of spring storms to search out and study the walruses now drifting north through the narrows of the Bearing Strait. All day, Kustau and his party pushed through the vast ice fields without sighting a single warrus. 20 mi from Siberia, they crossed the international date line and suddenly a distant sleeping herd. We silently approach upwind, for smell is the walos's most developed sense. >> Yet, it is not the smell of man that creates fear of man. Their concern would depend upon a past unhappy [music] experience with man. One of the wares, perhaps a sentinel, raises his tusks, probably as a threat to us, while his companions go back to sleep. Vanguard of the migration from Russian shores, they have perhaps never seen humans before. The group is composed of four adult males and a 4-year-old younger male. Out of the water, walruses, like most sea mammals, are lazy, contented creatures. Their awareness is dulled by sleepiness, >> but their hearing is acute. And as we prepare to record their sounds, we inadvertently destroy the tranquil scene. On the ice flow, the largest male stands fast, bold, and defiant. >> The war society is closely knit. They never desert a companion. >> Aggressive bulls have been known to rip skin boats from beneath. The animals now approach us in a threatening test display. >> The big male bellows his contempt. Our presence first draws an inquiring look and then the ruler of the ice flow appears overwhelmed by the burden of unexpected guests. The younger bull moves in to urge the old one to leave. Suddenly from the young Wallace comes an incredible bell sound. It is a call of alarm produced from two air sacks on either side of his neck. >> Nobly defiant to the last, the reluctant bull rejoins his her Boracious gulls in the straight indicate that hunters have also found walruses. Man has always and will always need to kill for eating. But one cannot help having mixed emotions when suddenly confronted by the reality of a hunt. Especially when the hunter's stealth and skill of old have been augmented by outboard motors, walkietalkies, and high powered binoculars. >> During the brief 6 week migration, because of severe storms, the Eskimos average only one day of hunting out of every three. Old males will be passed, juveniles spared. Prime targets are the females who place themselves between the boat and their babies. >> Female skins undamaged by fighting are needed for the Eskimo's boats. An orphaned pup calls for its mother. >> His mother has expired on an ice flow. [music] Only four days ago, she had cut her calf's umbilical cord, and together they had headed northward on their great adventure. [music] Infant walrus, we will stem your tears. The orphaned baby walrus, unafraid of men, swims toward Kustoau's approaching boat. >> The cub has left its dead mother to attach itself to any living thing. >> Alone, the 125 lb cub could not survive in the Arctic Sea. [music] >> [music] >> The baby walrus will receive the trained attention of Ed Asper, assistant curator of mammals at [music] Marineland of the Pacific. As a little one climbs around from person to person, we are moved by the [music] infant's pressing need for touch and affection. [music] He has found companions [music] to whom he can transfer the trust he felt for his mother. [music] >> The need for hunting walruses is discussed with John Pangalook of the city council of Gamble, Lee Kuzata of the Eskimo IRA Council, and Alaska's Walter J. Hickle, former US Secretary of the Interior. How many walrus does it take on an average for a community like Gamble which is about 400? How many walrus a year? >> 350 a year. >> 350 a year. >> Just about not quite one per person. >> No. No. >> Two years we have no luck at all. >> And first year out of those five years I think if I do remember right there is only one walrus killed by one boat by luck. What? just one and then the uh second year there are very very few during those two years a man with a big family whose uh income is only by carving he didn't get in >> yeah that's why it's important that >> it is important >> that the walrus You're lively. >> No. Wallace was ever cared for with more devotion than the orphan pup. He's nicknamed Burke by our divers because of his throaty barks. >> Ed Asper explains how in the wild the baby Wallace is kept clean by his mother. She washes him in the water or rolls him in the snow. >> But the water the snow after we wash him here, rub him with snow and dries him, cleans him very well. Cleans him almost water. >> With his bouquet of bristles, which are sensitive tactile organs, the curious infant learns about the world around him. As with a human baby, the bath is followed by the bottle. Until recently, it was difficult to keep rescued calves alive. But scientists have been able to approximate the war mother's milk. The formula consists of clams, cream, corn oil, salt, calcium, and vitamins. >> He's capable right now of consuming a half a gallon in one feeding. >> Hey, that's pretty fast. and you probably hear him suck air in just a minute here. >> Okay. He thinks it's gone. Yeah. Take a little snow, I think, and washes the ch. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> Yeah. >> He doesn't like that. [music] Walrus pups are not born with a natural liking for the water, but learn to swim under the toutelage of their mothers. Since Burke [music] has lost his mother, who would have taught him to breathe underwater, the Calypso divers must once again serve his [music] mother's substitutes and once more brave the frigid sea. Burk's baby blubber makes him almost impervious to cold, but he has to be tenderly coaxed into the water. [music] Confused, Burke expels air and gulps water. He has not yet learned to breathe properly and to close his watertight nostrils before submerging. [music] [music] Adult walruses can spend 10 minutes underwater. Burke keeps constantly popping up to breathe. He swims around bowling like a little kid holding his head out of water. Our frightened baby seeks security by riding on Bonis's back as he might his mothers. With his flippers, he seizes the divers's arm and is carried downward, only to [music] escape upward once more. It is a warful experience [music] that he is beginning to learn. and assisted by press [music] descends at last all the way to the sea floor. [music] Although he stays under [music] for only a few seconds now he has the confidence to try it on his own. [music] >> [music] >> Burke is praised for his good work and then surprises us by actually searching the bottom for food during this his first diving lesson. Much of his information is transmitted through his whiskers. [music] >> [music] >> Ascending with confidence. Burke is a big boy now. [laughter] >> The Eskimos of Gamble celebrate the conclusion of a successful hunting season. An inexperienced visiting Frenchman, Louisie Preslan, joins in the traditional blanket toss. [laughter] >> In our age of advanced technology, in this Eskimo village, tribal traditions are kept alive. But does the preservation of native culture conflict with progress and with enlightened conservational thought? Walter Hickle. >> I think that uh uh the most important thing as I see it is we allow them to have their life the way they need it. They have to live with life in the sea. And uh I think that uh we have an obligation to see to it that that life is protected. And yet we can't protect it to the point to where they can't use it. See [music] >> in open waters far beyond St. Lawrence Island, we follow a war family on its way northward. Soon all contact with them will be lost as they disperse to seek out shellfish banks reaching to the polar ice cap. Today Russian and American aerial surveys indicate that the population of the Pacific walrus has slowly increased to approximately 150,000. >> [music] >> Wallace, behind your bristling whiskers, do you smile. [music] [music] Far south of the Beering Strait at Alaska's Round Island, resident old males who no longer migrate live their life of leisure on retirement rocks. [music] Pale blue from a long dive, an elderly bull [music] seeks the warmth of his rosy sunbaked brothers. [music] In the sanctuary near Calypso at anchor, protected walruses dive and feed unafraid. [music] Our thoughts are with the Wallace and present. With our management and our constant surveillance, the Wallace society would appear secure. Yet, it has been the Wallace's seasonal retreat to inaccessible seas of ice for breeding and cing that has largely preserved them from Germany. Until now, more than any other sea mammal and perhaps [music] more than man himself, the walrus has been in command of his own life, his own destiny.