Both male and female walruses have tusks and have been observed using
these overgrown teeth to help pull themselves out of the water.
The mustached and long-tusked walrus is most
often found near the Arctic Circle, lying on the ice with hundreds of
companions. These marine mammals are extremely sociable, prone to loudly
bellowing and snorting at one another, but are aggressive during mating
season. With wrinkled brown and pink hides, walruses are distinguished
by their long white tusks, grizzly whiskers, flat flipper, and bodies
full of blubber.
Walruses use their iconic long
tusks for a variety of reasons, each of which makes their lives in the
Arctic a bit easier. They use them to haul their enormous bodies out of
frigid waters, thus their "tooth-walking" label,
and to break breathing
holes into ice from below. Their tusks, which are found on both males
and females, can extend to about three feet (one meter), and are, in
fact, large canine teeth, which grow throughout their lives. Male
walruses, or bulls, also employ their tusks aggressively to maintain
territory and, during mating season, to protect their harems of females,
or cows.
The walrus' other characteristic
features are equally useful. As their favorite meals, particularly
shellfish, are found near the dark ocean floor, walruses use their
extremely sensitive whiskers, called mustacial vibrissae, as detection
devices. Their blubbery bodies allow them to live comfortably in the
Arctic region—walruses are capable of slowing their heartbeats in order
to withstand the polar temperatures of the surrounding waters.
The
two subspecies of walrus are divided geographically. Atlantic walruses
inhabit coastal areas from northeastern Canada to Greenland, while
Pacific walruses inhabit the northern seas off Russia and Alaska,
migrating seasonally from their southern range in the Bering Sea—where
they are found on the pack ice in winter—to the Chukchi Sea. Female
Pacific walruses give birth to calves during the spring migration north.
Only
Native Americans are currently allowed to hunt walruses, as the
species' survival was threatened by past overhunting. Their tusks, oil,
skin, and meat were so sought after in the 18th and 19th centuries that
the walrus was hunted to extinction in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and
around Sable Island, off the coast of Nova Scotia.
Fast Facts
- Type:
- Mammal
- Diet:
- Carnivore
- Average life span in the wild:
- Up to 40 years
- Size:
- 7.25 to 11.5 ft (2.2 to 3.5 m)
- Weight:
- Up to 1.5 tons (1.4 metric tons)
- Group name:
- Herd
- Protection status:
- Endangered
- Did you know?
- The walrus' scientific name, Odobenus rosmarus, is Latin for "tooth-walking sea-horse."
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