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,
