Walrus

HABITATION

The walrus is subdivided into three subspecies; the Pacific walrus which lives in the Pacific Ocean, and the much smaller populations of: the Atlantic walrus which lives in the Atlantic Ocean and O. r. laptevi, which lives in the Laptev Sea of the Arctic Ocean.

Pacific Walrus

Walruses live to about 20–30 years old in the wild in the arctic regions.

The majority of the population of the Pacific walrus spends its summers north of the Bering Strait along the northern coast of eastern Siberia, along the north shore of Alaska south to Unimak Island, and in the waters between those locations. They winter over in the Bering Sea along the eastern coast of Siberia south to the northern part of the Kamchatka Peninsula, and along the southern coast of Alaska.

The population of Atlantic walruses ranges from the Canadian Arctic, across Greenland, Svalbard, and the western part of Arctic Russia.

ANATOMY

Walruses are very big, even compared to big male sea lions, especially the Pacific Walrus. While some outsized Pacific males can weigh as much as 2,000 kg (4,400 lb), most weigh between 800 and 1,700 kg (1,800 and 3,700 lb).

With all their blubber, which can be as much as six inches thick, walruses are very comfortable in icy water. A bonus is that the blubber makes their hide much tougher for predators to penetrate.

Walruses are actually 18% blubber and 44% muscle.

Walruses just have a hole for an ear - not ear flaps.

They can rotate their back flippers forward to walk on land.

The walrus' tusks are actually teeth growing out of their mouth, a bit like the narwhal. The tusks grow for about 15 years before they reach their full length, which is about 40 in (102 cm) for males and 30 in (76 cm) for females.

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A walrus's whiskers are 40 times thicker than human hair.

The walrus has an air sac called a pharyngeal pouch under its throat which acts like a flotation bubble and allows it to bob vertically in the water while sleeping.

REPRODUCTION

During breeding season walruses woo potential mates with a chorus of high-pitched whistles and deep, bell-like moans with the help of their inflatable sacs.

The males reach sexual maturity as early as seven years, but do not typically mate until fully developed at around 15 years of age.

A Walrus’ pregnancy lasts 15 -16 months.

BEHAVIOR

They are very good swimmers and divers. While feeding, a walrus may plunge to depths of well over 300 feet.

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Walruses sometimes stay awake for roughly three and a half straight days while at sea though they can sleep and swim at the same time.

When walruses eat bigger prey such as seals and small whales, they first tear them apart with their tusks to make them easier to eat.

The walrus uses its tusks like grappling hooks to pull itself out onto the ice. Pushing its tusks into the ice, the walrus gets extra help hauling its huge body out of the sea. This is probably how walruses got their family name Odobenidae, which comes from Greek words meaning "Tooth-Walking Sea Horse."

The male walrus tusk are slightly longer and thicker than female ones. The males use them for fighting, dominance and display; Tusk size helps determine a given walrus’ social status; the individuals with the largest tusks generally command the most respect.

FUN WALRUS FACTS

In 1281, the Catholic Bishop of Greenland contributed walrus tusks to help fund the Crusades.

In the 19th century, currency had to be printed on walrus skin in Alaska to survive the harsh climate.

European hunters and Arctic explorers found walrus meat not particularly tasty, and only ate it in case of necessity; however walrus tongue was a delicacy.

JRR Tolkien's first job after the First World War was for the Oxford English Dictionary, working on the history of the letter W. Among the words starting with the letter W he worked on was 'walrus.' Tolkien thought the origin of the word was derived from a Germanic language.

Perhaps the best-known appearance of a walrus is in Lewis Carroll's whimsical poem "The Walrus and the Carpenter" which appears in his 1871 book Through the Looking-Glass. "The Walrus and the Carpenter" was written by Carroll on Whitburn Sands, Sunderland in North East England.

The "walrus" in the cryptic Beatles song "I Am the Walrus" is a reference to the Lewis Carroll poem. In an interview, John Lennon said: "It never dawned on me that Lewis Carroll was commenting on the capitalist and social system. I never went into that bit about what he really meant, like people are doing with the Beatles' work. Later, I went back and looked at it and realized that the walrus was the bad guy in the story and the carpenter was the good guy. I thought, oh no I picked the wrong guy. I should have said, 'I am the carpenter.' But that wouldn't have been the same, would it?"

Source MentalFloss