Shooting walruses with crossbows — for science

Scientists are planning to use a new method to take samples from walruses that spend the summer eating, belching and male bonding on the islands off Alaska’s coasts, the Anchorage Daily News says.

They will try out a veterinary crossbow as an alternative to drugging walruses – a procedure that too often ends in death.

Scientists want to get more accurate population numbers in an effort to determine if walrus stocks are healthy. The study requires attaching transmitters to walruses.

The trick with the veterinary crossbow will be adjusting it so that the anchor for the transmitter is delivered to the right spot between the walrus’s thick, tough hide and blubber.

In past years, scientists have anesthetized the walruses to attach transmitters to their tusks. The transmitters provide dive data so counters can compensate for walruses that are underwater and missed during the aerial surveys.

But drugging walruses comes at a high price.

Of 112 walruses, 15 per cent have died since 1995. Scientists believe the drugs may be interfering with a complicated respiratory system that allows walruses to stay underwater for nearly 10 minutes at a time.

The scientists also will be using standard crossbows to collect tissue for DNA sampling to get more information on whether there are walrus subgroups.

The samples will be collected with arrows equipped with small cutting heads.