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Facts about Walrus

Walrus

Walruses have been utilized by indigenous people for thousands of years, being hunted for their meat, tusks, and skins.

Walrus

Walruses have only three natural enemies: humans, orca, and the polar bear.

Walrus

Only under rare circumstances may non-native hunters gain permission to kill a walrus legally.

Walrus

Walruses have thick skin, which can get to five centimeters (two inches) thick around the neck and shoulders of males.

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Walrus

Large male walruses have been observed to attack seals if they cannot find any other food source.

Walrus

The taxonomic name of the order, Gymnophiona, derives from the Greek words ?????? (gymnos, naked) and ???? (ophis, snake), as the caecilians were originally thought to be related with snakes.

Walrus

Pacific walruses feed on more than 60 genera of marine organisms including shrimp, crabs, tube worms, soft coral, tunicates, sea cucumbers and other echinoderms, various mollusks, and even parts of other pinnipeds.

Walrus

Walruses mate in the water and give birth on land or ice floes.

Walrus

The compound Odobenus comes from odous (Greek for "tooth") and baino (Greek for "walk"), based on observations of walruses using their tusks to pull themselves out of the water.

Walrus

Eye problems for the walrus are common and they sometimes experience intestinal disease.

Walrus

The Atlantic walruses show exposure to the bacteria Brucella and sometimes will show infection with Trichinella and also lice.

Walrus

The Pacific walrus is slightly larger, with males weighing up to 1,900 kilograms (4,180 pounds), but Atlantic males top out at 1,600 kilograms (3,500 pounds).

Walrus

The walrus should not be confused with the elephant seal, another large pinniped, and despite the etymology of its name it is not related to the whales.

Walrus

Walruses can also spit jets of water to look for clams.

Walrus

Walruses spend about half their time in the water and half their time on beaches or ice floes, where they gather in large herds.

Walrus

Polar bears hunt walruses by rushing at them, trying to get the herd to flee, then picking off calves or other stragglers.

Walrus

Herpesviruses can also be seen sometimes in the walrus population.

Walrus

The Atlantic walrus once enjoyed a range that extended south to Cape Cod and occurred in large numbers in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

Walrus

Older male walruses frequently bear large scars from these bloody but rarely fatal battles.

Walrus

The Pacific walruses can have longer tusks and smaller noses than the Atlantic populations.

Walrus

The law prohibits the export of raw tusks from Alaska, but walrus ivory products may come on the market if first sculpted into scrimshaw by a native craftsman.

Walrus

The walruses use their long tusks (elongated canines) for fighting, dominance, and display and the males will spar with their tusks.

Walrus

The walrus is a large, semi-aquatic mammal that lives in the cold Arctic seas of the Northern Hemisphere and is the only non-seal pinniped (Pinnipedia) and the only pinniped with tusks.

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Walrus

Walruses are the only pinnipeds that have tusks, which can grow up to one meter in length.

Walrus

Walruses have been known to kill polar bears and small whales.

Walrus

Like other pinnipeds, walruses have both front and hind limbs in the form of flippers and need to come on land (or ice) to give birth and raise their offspring.

Walrus

Federal laws in both the United States and in Canada protect walruses and set quotas on the yearly harvest.

Walrus

The Pacific walrus is slightly larger, with males weighing up to 1,900 kilograms (4,180 pounds), but Atlantic males top out at 1,600 kilograms (3,500 pounds).

Walrus

Caliciviruses are thought to sometimes affect Pacific walruses causing skin lesions and they are thought to have a wide exposure to the viruses.

Walrus

Pacific walruses feed on more than 60 genera of marine organisms including shrimp, crabs, tube worms, soft coral, tunicates, sea cucumbers and other echinoderms, various mollusks, and even parts of other pinnipeds.

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