Officials find 25 walruses beheaded on arctic beach

                     Walruses resting on ice   (C)StephenKazlowski/Barcroft Media

About 25 walruses and their pups were found beheaded and scattered over an isolated beach in northwest Alaska. The US Fish and Wildlife Service is leading the investigation and says it does not want to speculate on why so many walruses were slaughtered in one location at a time when the marine mammal is under threat from vanishing sea ice, the Express reports.
Walrus ivory is precious and only Alaska's natives are allowed to hunt the animals at a subsistence level for food or to turn their bones and skin into handicrafts. US regulations allow beachcombers to collect teeth and walrus ivory within 440 yards of the ocean but head-hunting is illegal. However, the US Fish and Wildlife spokeswoman, Andrea Medeiros said: "We can't come to any conclusions based on a report. You have to go out and investigate."
She added that missing heads and tusks do not necessarily indicate illegal activity and the animals could have died in the ocean and washed ashore.
Most of the walruses found in the Chukshi Sea north of the Bering Strait are females that use the edge of the sea ice as platforms to dive for clams on the ocean bottom. Vanishing sea ice in recent years has meant the best ice platforms becoming more remote and outside the diving range of the walruses.
Arctic sea ice hit its summer minimum last week ¬down to 1.7 million square miles and means that 240,000 square miles have been lost since last summer.

Source: Express