Baby Walrus Alert!

Back in March, Motherboard reported that not one, but two female walruses at the Quebec aquarium were pregnant—and that the odds were hugely stacked against them. Walrus reproduction remains a mysterious and little-understood process, and healthy births in captivity are so rare that almost none have ever been recorded.

Well, scientists who study walrus reproduction must be wondering what's going on in Quebec city, because in the past month, both successfully gave birth. On the night of May 23, a female named Samka delivered a male pup, following Arnaliaq's delivery, on May 7, of a female. They both have the same dad, a moustachioed stud named Boris.

Even in the wild, walrus births are a dicey affair, and babies are sometimes trampled to death in stampedes. In zoos and aquariums, where day-night cycles are different than the Arctic, which seems to throw off their reproduction, successful births almost unheard-of.

These represent not only the first—and second—live walrus births in captivity in Quebec, but also anywhere in Canada, the aquarium said in a press release (in French). Actually, the last time that a baby walrus was born in captivity anywhere in the world seems to have been in Germany, in 2014, and that was just one pup, not two.

The Quebec aquarium's about to have a busy summer season, as visitors swarm there to check out these wrinkly, whiskered little creatures that are basically never accessible below Arctic latitudes. Scientists are keen to get there, too. The aquarium says it's already hearing from researchers around the world.