Walruses are one of the most recognizable inhabitants of the north. They have flippers instead of the usual legs, and a fish-like tail at the back. They also have very large fangs-tusks, which make them impossible to confuse with other animals, and unique resistance to harsh cold climates, which is why the word walrus It even became a household name. These large marine mammals are the only such species in Arctic waters.
Origin of the species and description
According to the zoological classification, walruses belong to the family Walrus and to the order Pinnipeds. That is, they have flippers instead of legs. Distant relatives of walruses are eared seals, to which they are very similar in appearance. For a long time, all pinnipeds were considered one order, but according to modern ideas, only eared seals are related to walruses, and real seals belong to a completely different lineage.
Video: Walrus
In fact, both pinnipeds come from different ancestors, and the similar shape of the body and limbs is explained by the same living conditions. The lineages of eared seals and walruses diverged approximately 28 million years ago. The walruses themselves in their modern form formed about 5-8 million years ago and lived in the Pacific region. They have inhabited Arctic waters for approximately 1 million years.
There are three separate subspecies of walrus, with non-overlapping habitats and minor differences in appearance, these are:
- Pacific walrus;
- Atlantic walrus;
- Laptev walrus.
Although, based on the results of DNA research and the study of morphometric data, scientists began to believe that they should abandon considering the Laptev walrus subspecies as an independent one. Despite the isolation of their range, these walruses can be considered the extreme western population of the Pacific subspecies.
Appearance and features
The body of the walrus is very massive and quite large. The length of an adult individual reaches 4 to 5 meters, and body weight can reach up to one and a half tons. Females are smaller. The walrus's head is disproportionately small compared to its body, so it seems like a small growth on its powerful neck.
The animal's muzzle is lined with numerous thick and hard whiskers, the thickness of which can reach 1 or 2 mm, and the length from 15 to 20 cm. The walrus has no external ears, the eyes are quite small and myopic. Vibrissae on the animal's face appearance resemble a brush. They are used by the walrus when searching for underwater mollusks and when navigating along the bottom, since at great depths under ice floes there is not enough light, and vision begins to play a secondary role.
Walruses have upper canines that are extremely developed, quite elongated and directed far down beyond the jaw. They are called tusks. The walrus furrows the bottom with them, trying to dig up mollusks and other living creatures hidden in the sand. When moving on ice floes, a walrus can use its tusks as an aid for grip. But we must keep in mind that this is not their main purpose. Sometimes the tusks become damaged and the walrus loses them. This happens especially often in captivity, due to the hard concrete floors in enclosures.
Interesting fact: The tusks can reach a meter in length and weigh up to 5 kg. Often the tusks are used for fighting, so the male with the largest tusks is dominant.
The animal's very thick skin is completely covered with short, adjacent, yellow-brown hair. But with age, there is less hair on the body, and in fairly old walruses the skin turns out to be almost completely bare. The skin itself has a dark brown color.
The limbs of the walrus, like those of other pinnipeds, are flippers. But they are more adapted for movement on land, unlike seals. Therefore, walruses can walk on land and not crawl like other pinnipeds. The soles are calloused. On sushi, walruses are quite clumsy and have difficulty moving. But they are excellent swimmers and feel very free in the water.
Where does the walrus live?
Walruses live around the shores of the Arctic Ocean around the North Pole. Their range is circumpolar. You can meet animals on the northern coasts of Europe, Asia, as well as in the coastal waters of North America and many Arctic islands. But unlike seals, walruses avoid both open water spaces and pack ice, so they try to stay close to the shores.
In general, walruses prefer to live where the depth to the bottom is no more than one hundred meters. Since most of their diet consists of bottom living creatures, the less they have to dive and spend energy, the easier it is for the animals. But at the same time, almost any walrus is capable of diving to a depth of 150–200 meters.
Fun fact: Walruses can slow their heart rate while diving. And a large layer of subcutaneous fat, which is a good heat insulator, helps them withstand low water temperatures.
Animals have seasonal migrations, but they are very short. In winter, walrus populations move south, but only 100–200 kilometers. For such large animals this is very little.
The largest number of walruses live on the Chukchi Peninsula, on both sides of the Bering Strait, and there are also many colonies on the Labrador Peninsula. Fewer walruses are found in the western and central parts of the Eurasian coast. Representatives of the Atlantic subspecies live in the vicinity of Greenland and Spitsbergen.
These walruses are also found in the western Russian Arctic. An isolated Laptey population of walruses is localized in the central and western region of the Laptev Sea. This subspecies is the smallest.
What does a walrus eat?
The majority of the walrus' diet consists of bivalves and other benthic invertebrates, which are harvested at depths of up to 50–80 meters.
Food can also include:
- Some types of lobsters;
- Shrimps;
- Polychaete worms.
Less commonly, walruses eat octopuses and sea cucumbers. In extreme cases, some species of fish provide food, although walruses usually do not pay attention to fish. Walruses can also eat other pinnipeds, for example, baby seals or ringed seals, but this occurs extremely rarely and in exceptional cases when there is not enough regular food for everyone. Only individual individuals attack, so there is no need to talk about the massive nature of eating other animals. In very rare cases, walruses may attack landing birds.
On average, to get enough, an adult walrus needs to eat up to 50 kg of shellfish or other food per day. Food production occurs as follows. First, the walrus, with its powerful tusks, pierces the sandy or muddy bottom, “plows” it and uproots shells from there. Their shell is erased by intense movement of the flippers, the surface of which is covered with multiple hard calluses, and the meat is eaten. The extraction of worms and crustaceans occurs in a similar way. Walruses actually sweep them off the bottom to eat them. The search for food occurs with the help of vibrissae located on the animal’s face.
Features of character and lifestyle
Walruses are herd animals. Typically, each herd is between 20 and 30 walruses in size, but some rookeries have hundreds or even thousands of animals grouped together. Each flock is dominated by the strongest and largest male. The rest periodically sort things out with him and try to take away the title. The subject of dispute is almost always the females.
In a herd, animals often lie very close to each other, due to the limited area of \u200b\u200bland or ice floes. Often you have to lie on your side, sometimes resting your head on a nearby walrus. And if there is very little space, then they can lie in two layers. The entire rookery is constantly “moving”: some animals go into the water to eat or cool down, and other walruses immediately return to their place to sleep.
An interesting fact: at the edges of walrus rookeries there are almost always sentinels who, having noticed the danger, immediately notify everyone else with a loud roar. After such a signal, the entire herd rushes into the water as one.
In relation to other animals and to each other, walruses are for the most part peaceful and friendly. In addition, female walruses have a very developed maternal instinct, so they selflessly protect their cubs when danger appears, and take care not only of their own offspring, but also of other people’s cubs. They are also very sociable. Any adult walrus in the herd allows any calf to climb onto its back and lie there to rest.
Social structure and reproduction
Walruses are quite peaceful and calm animals, but during the mating season, which occurs in late April or early May, there are very often battles between males for females. In a fight, they use their powerful fangs-tusks, but do not leave strong lesions on the opponent’s body. Walruses have very thick skin and a thick layer of fat, which prevent serious injury to internal organs.
At the end of April, male walruses accumulate the largest amount of mature sperm and are ready to fertilize a female. Females, in turn, are also ready for fertilization during this period, and already in mid-May they begin to develop the corpora lutea of pregnancy.
After mating, all walruses continue their quiet life in their herd. Pregnant females will bear their offspring within a year. There is always only one baby born. Its weight reaches 60–70 kg, length is about a meter. The little walrus is able to swim in water from birth, this helps him survive in case of danger, and he dives after his mother.
The lactation period of walruses is very long - two whole years. Therefore, walruses breed only once every 4–5 years. A female can become pregnant more often only if the previous cub has died. When walrus cubs grow fairly large tusks, lactation stops and the animal begins to feed on its own. Males become sexually mature at six to seven years of age, females a little earlier.
The cubs continue to live within the same herd with their parents, but as independent individuals.
Natural enemies of walruses
Walruses are large and very strong, so very few people could harm them. Of the land animals, only the walrus is at risk of attack, and it does so in a certain way. A bear watches for a walrus on the edge of an ice floe or near an ice hole from which the walrus will emerge.
It is at the moment of surfacing that the bear must strike him so that he can then deal with the carcass. That is, if he does not kill or knock out the walrus with one blow, then the walrus will resist him. In a battle between a walrus and a bear, the latter can be seriously injured by the tusks of the sea giant.
Bears are also very dangerous for newborns and even small walruses. Bears can attack them directly on land, on ice. Babies are not able to provide strong resistance and most often die in the clutches of predators.
There are known cases of killer whales attacking walruses. They are almost 3 times larger in size than walruses and 4 times heavier, so the walrus cannot protect itself from killer whales. He can only escape if he gets out onto land. Killer whale hunting tactics are always the same. They wedge themselves into a flock of walruses, separate it, then surround an individual and attack it.
The main enemy of walruses is man. People often hunted walruses for meat, fat, skin and tusks. By killing one walrus, you can feed a family for several months, which is why many walruses died at the hands of humans. But not only hunger forces people to kill these peaceful animals, they are also driven by the passion of the hunt.
Unfortunately, this is why a lot of walruses died for nothing. They reproduce rather slowly, and the number of walruses has greatly decreased. In order to increase it you will need a large number of time, and, no matter how you look at it, this process cannot be accelerated.
Population and species status
There is no exact information on the number of walruses today. According to rough estimates, the number of representatives of the Pacific subspecies is at least 200 thousand individuals. The number of Atlantic walrus is an order of magnitude lower - from 20 to 25 thousand animals, so this subspecies is considered endangered. The smallest population is the Laptev population. There are between 5 and 10 thousand such walruses left today.
Not only human activity, but also global climate change has a significant impact on the population of these animals. In particular, there is a reduction in the extent of pack ice and its thickness. Namely, it is on this ice that walruses form their rookeries for mating and childbirth during the reproductive period.
It is believed that due to climate change, there has been a decrease in suitable resting areas for walruses near their optimal feeding areas. Because of this, females are forced to be away longer in search of food, and this also affects the feeding of the cubs.
Due to the decline in the number of walruses, their commercial harvest is currently prohibited by law in all countries. To a limited extent, fishing is allowed only to indigenous peoples, whose existence is historically closely connected with walrus hunting.
Walrus protection
The Atlantic and Laptev subspecies of walrus living in Russian waters are included in the Red Book of Russia. Their coastal rookeries are protected, and fishing has been prohibited since the fifties of the 20th century. The rookery sites have been declared nature reserves, and industrial activity in their vicinity has been reduced to a minimum. But other than this, no special or additional measures for the protection of walruses have been worked out in detail to date.
Joint international efforts have succeeded in increasing the natural increase in walruses. On average, it is now about 14%, which is 1% higher than the mortality rate of these animals. Along with the actions already taken, it is also advisable to organize habitat surveys and carefully monitor numbers on a regular basis.
There is an assumption that in order to maintain the population, it makes sense to protect not so much the walruses themselves, but rather the animals that they feed on. But this is just one of the potentially possible measures. There is also an opinion that the decline in numbers is due to climate change. This makes artificial restoration of populations much more difficult.
The only effective measure is to limit chemical pollution of the seabed and water, as well as limit disturbance factors, such as the noise of helicopter engines and passing ships. Then walrus will be able to restore its population and perhaps begin to restore its position in the global ecosystem.
At school, during biology lessons, we were told that walruses are the only species in the Walrus family (lat. Odobenidae), and that among marine mammals in body size they are second only to whales and elephant seals. And another thing is that walruses, especially males, have very large upper canines.
What else interesting can we say about them? So it’s probably a little difficult to answer this question right away. If so, then I propose to get to know the life of these sea animals a little closer.
Getting to know them will take place in a slightly unusual form - “Did you know that...”. So let's get started.
Did you know that...
- ... the walrus species includes two main subspecies, different in distribution area. These are the Pacific walrus (lat. Odobenus rosmarus divirgens) and the Atlantic walrus (lat. Odobenus rosmarus rosmarus). There is also a third subspecies - the Laptev walrus (lat. Odobenus rosmarus laptevi), but its independence is still in question.
- ...the name of these animals came to us from Greek language and means “walking with teeth.” Indeed, very often one can observe a picture when a huge walrus, in order to climb or stay on an ice floe, uses huge tusks as a counterweight to its body.
- ...walruses spend almost 2/3 of their lives in water. But despite this, they are not very fond of depth. They spend the rest of the time on ice floes or on the snow-covered coast, basking in the rays of the sun.
- ... walruses occupy third place in the ranking of the largest marine mammals, second only to whales and elephant seals.
Adult males can reach 3-3.6 meters in length and weigh up to 1,700 kilograms. Females, of course, are more miniature, if such a comparison can be applied to an animal 2.5-3 meters long and weighing 1300 kilograms.
Males are most often famous for their powerful dimensions. Sometimes their “waist” circumference can reach or exceed their body length.
- ...walruses can change their color from white to brown. This phenomenon is associated with sudden temperature changes. In cold water, many of the skin's blood vessels constrict, reducing blood flow to the skin and turning it a dull gray or off-white color. During sunbathing, the blood vessels, on the contrary, dilate and the skin acquires a pinkish tint.
Young animals are dark brown in color.
Pink coloring - ... the length of male tusks can reach 1 meter! In females they are slightly shorter - only 60-80 centimeters. They grow for about 15 years and wear off over time.
Walrus tusks serve several functions. Firstly, it is a kind of indicator of social status in the herd. The larger the tusks, the greater the authority. Secondly, it is an excellent self-defense weapon. And, thirdly, a convenient tool for plowing the seabed in search of shellfish. And yet, tusks are an excellent tool for educating the younger generation.
But there is one problem with them - sleeping with such teeth is not very comfortable. Therefore, while sleeping, the walrus has to lie either on its back or put its head on its side; in extreme cases, you can lean your elbows on a nearby neighbor. He is unlikely to resist.
- ... walruses have from 400 to 700 long and thick “whiskers” on their muzzle - vibrissae, which act as organs of touch. With their help, the walrus “combs” the seabed in search of its main food - shellfish, and rolls the dug up shellfish into a ball, which is then put into the mouth.
- ... the walrus brain weighs very little compared to the total body weight - only about 1 kilogram.
- ... the eyes are small and protrude from the sockets. But, despite their size, they are quite mobile, so the animal does not have a special need to often turn its head in different directions. They are not distinguished by good eyesight; in principle, in the semi-dark underwater world it is of no use. Other senses are important here. For example, the sense of smell, which is very developed in walruses.
- ... the ears, or more precisely, the auditory openings of walruses are very small - only 1-2 millimeters in diameter. Although such sizes do not in the least prevent walruses from hearing well both in water and on land. For example, a female can hear the call of her cub from a distance of about 2 kilometers.
During diving, these holes are tightly closed with the help of auditory muscles.
- ...walruses have very mobile limbs - fins and flippers. The front flippers have 5 fingers of equal length with small claws. The skin on the limbs is very thick and rough, which ensures comfortable movement on ice and land. The hind flippers also have 5 bony fingers.
- ... the thickness of their skin is 2.5-4 centimeters, and the thickness of the subcutaneous fat varies from 4 to 12 centimeters. And not by chance. This fatty layer has low thermal conductivity and serves as good protection for internal organs during disputes between males.
- ... these giants love to communicate. Both underwater and on land. To do this, they use 3 types of vocal communication, which is most often expressed in the form of mooing, grumbling, gurgling, coughing and roaring.
- ... walruses at short distances in water can accelerate to 21 km/h. The average swimming speed is 4-4.5 km/hour.
- ... these giants can stay underwater for up to 10 minutes, then they are forced to surface for another portion of fresh air. During a dive, the heart rate can decrease to 4-15 beats per minute to save oxygen consumption, and this despite the fact that the natural heart rate of walruses is 150 beats per minute!
- ...walruses can sleep in water without drowning. A pair of elastic throat sacs filled with air allows them to remain on the surface of the water while sleeping.
- ... the diet of walruses consists of 80-90% mollusks (bivalves and elasmobranchs), the remaining 10-20% is fish, annelids, starfish, crayfish and... carrion! Walruses eat a lot. On average, they consume about 4-6% of their body weight in food per day.
- ... walruses remove mollusks from the shell using their front paws.
- ... they live in large herds, in which they are divided into smaller separate herds of females and males. But there may also be mixed variants, which consist of smaller family groups.
- ... the herd has its own hierarchical ladder. It is headed by the largest, most aggressive and “fanged” individual. Most often these are males. Both smaller males and females can get it from them.
Demonstrations of strength and showdowns in the herd occur quite often. And, as often happens in the animal world, this process is accompanied by fights, which can result in serious injuries.
- ... males become sexually mature at 8-10 years, but begin to take part in reproduction only after 6-7 years. What caused such a long period of time? It turns out that in order to mate with a female, you need to gain strength, weight and “earn” a certain position in the herd, and besides, you will have to compete with other opponents for the female.
- ...pregnancy in females lasts more than a year - 15-16 months. Only one cub is born, covered with thick silver-gray fur. As he grows up, he changes his “clothing” to a coat with short and sparse brown fur.
Female with cub - ... walruses are very caring mothers. They look after their cubs every minute and will never harm them.
- ... even among walruses, the “adoption” of orphaned cubs is common.
- ... while learning to swim, the mother periodically carries her baby on her back or on the scruff of the neck.
- ... the average lifespan of these animals is about 20-30 years.
- ... the main enemies of walruses are polar bears, killer whales and humans.
The diversity of animals on planet Earth is truly amazing. The Atlantic walrus is the most recognizable pinniped. It is the largest after the elephant seal. Thanks to the huge fangs on its mouth, the walrus is familiar to every person. In this article we will tell you in detail about the life of these amazing animals.
A little information
The Atlantic walrus is an animal, a mammal. It is a mistake to consider it a fish. Scientists distinguish three subspecies of walruses:
- Laptevsky.
- Pacific.
- Atlantic.
The third and first species are endangered animals and are listed in the Red Book. Fishing is allowed for the second species. It is available only to the indigenous peoples of the North. The exact number of individuals is difficult to calculate. So far, scientists agree on the following indicators:
But these are conditional figures. It is not poachers that pose a serious threat to walrus numbers, but climate change. Melting ice is depriving them of their habitat and mating places.
Where does the walrus live?
In the study of any animal species, determining the habitat plays an important role. Where do walruses live? - in the area of the Arctic seas, Atlantic and Pacific Ocean. In winter, they live on icebergs that drift through the water. In summer they come out onto land. In the off-season they can be found between Chukotka and Alaska, and in summer in warmer waters. Atlantic walruses can be found in the western Arctic and eastern Canada. Due to poachers, the number of individuals decreases every year.
A little about nutrition
They need to eat almost all day. The basis of their diet is bottom-dwelling mollusks. They are easy to get - the walrus stirs up the muddy bottom with its long tusks, as a result of which the water is filled with hundreds of small shells. Here the walrus grabs them in his flippers and rubs them with powerful movements. After which the fragments of shells fall to the bottom, the mollusks remain on the surface of the water. So the walrus eats them. Worms and crustaceans are also eaten.
But animals do not like fish and rarely eat it, only when there are serious problems with food. Thick-skinned giants do not disdain carrion. Scientists have recorded cases of walrus attacks on narwhals and seals.
Animals need the entire diet not only to maintain the vital functions of the body, but also to build up subcutaneous fat. Its layer reaches 10 cm. It is due to this that the walrus swims and does not suffer from hypothermia.
Features of behavior
Representatives of this species of pinnipeds live in a herd. It is interesting that living collectively, individuals actively help each other and protect weak individuals from attack. When the bulk of the animals are sleeping or resting, sentries monitor the safety of the herd. When danger approaches, they begin to deafen the area with their roar. Despite the apparent slowness and inability to adapt to life, walruses:
- Excellent hearing. During observations of pinnipeds, scientists discovered that the female can hear her cub two kilometers away.
- They have a wonderful sense of smell, they sense a person well.
- Unperturbed, but thanks to their anatomy everyone sees perfectly.
- Excellent swimmers.
- Rarely attack first, but they can sink the boat.
The main threat comes not only from humans. Pinnipeds are food for killer whales and polar bears.
Reproduction
These pinnipeds reach the age of sexual maturity by five years. The bulk of the mating season occurs in April-May. Males actively fight and identify strong individuals. Females carry their young for a year. A newborn individual reaches a body length of 80 cm and a weight of 30 kg. Since walruses are mammals, they feed their offspring with milk. The cub is born alone, very rarely there are two.
By the second year of life, the cub begins to switch to adult food. His tusks reach the required length and he begins to look for shellfish. From the first day they begin to swim with their mother. The cub lives with its mother for two years. But even after this period, the female does not seek to become pregnant with a new baby. As a rule, they give birth to one walrus every four years. Fun fact - in a herd of animals, only 5% of females become pregnant.
The average lifespan of powerful pinnipeds is 30 years. The animal grows up to 20 years. According to unconfirmed reports, there were individuals who lived for forty and fifty years.
Threat to the species
The main threat to many animals comes from people. For hunters and poachers, the powerful pinnipeds have become a source of tusks (valuable on the black market), meat and lard. Despite restrictions on fishing and territory protection, the number of walruses is declining and they are in danger of extinction. An exception is made only for the indigenous peoples of the North - the Chukchi and Eskimos. For them, this is a natural need and even they can catch a limited number of individuals. The meat of this animal is a necessary part of their diet due to national characteristics.
Polar bears do not attack walruses very often. In the water he is clearly losing, and on land the forces will not be equal. Its prey is mainly young and old animals, as well as sick ones. Orcas present more real threat. In water they are swift and ruthless. They are larger and heavier than pinnipeds. They have only one chance to escape - to crawl onto land. Fun fact: Orcas work as teams. They divide the herd into groups and push them away from the shore and ice floes. A fragmented community becomes easy prey for predators. Other animals do not pose a threat to walruses.
The walrus is a pinniped, a mammal found mostly in the far north. Distributed along the coasts of the Bering and Chukchi seas, east to the coasts of Alaska and Canada.
It cannot be confused with other pinnipeds, since the walrus has distinctive feature- large tusks.
Both females and males have tusks, essentially elongated fangs. They are located on the upper jaw vertically downwards. Their length reaches 1 meter, weight can exceed 5 kg.
Males use tusks as weapons in fights with rivals during the mating period. Walruses also use their tusks as additional strength when trying to climb out of the water onto an ice floe, or climb up a rock.
There are three subspecies: Pacific, Atlantic and Laptev walruses.
These animals have very thick, textured skin due to the formation of fatty folds. The body is not completely covered with fur and hairs, and in older individuals the body is almost smooth.
Skin color ranges from light to dark brown, sometimes with reddish tint. When swimming, the skin of walruses lightens and may even turn white because the water is very cold and the blood vessels constrict.
The walrus's body shape is cone-shaped, with a large massive chest and neck, but at the same time a small and wide head, with a slightly flattened nose and wide-set small eyes. The look of the walrus is sad, but beautiful.
The body tapers towards the caudal part and ends with a small rudimentary tail.
The limbs of the walrus are flippers, which are adapted not only to water, but also to land. Walruses successfully move on land - they walk on flippers, and do not crawl like other pinnipeds.
Walruses are very large animals. The average body weight is about a ton, but this is not the limit. Individuals weighing about 1500 – 1800 kg are often found.
Walruses feed on fish, shellfish and other invertebrates. There are cases when walruses hunt seals or birds sitting on the water.
In search of food, they dive underwater, where they can stay for up to 10 minutes, or try to find food on the surface. The daily requirement for one walrus reaches 100 kg of food.
Walruses are friendly to each other and prefer to stay in groups, but females stay apart. A walrus calf stays with its mother until it is three years old. They feed on mother's milk for up to a year, but already at the age of six months they begin to try other foods.
Upon reaching three years of age, it begins to independently obtain food.
Walrus milk is very nutritious, the fat content is almost 50%, the protein is 10 - 13%, the milk is sweet, since its sugar content is about 0.2%.
Females give birth to offspring approximately once every three to four years, one cub is born.
Walruses like to set up rookeries on ice floes or shores. A funny picture when several dozen huge animals were spread out along the shore. But sometimes, in the event of any danger, walruses fussily begin to dive into the water, not noticing the small cubs underneath them, which often leads to the death of the walruses.
Odobenus rosmarus
Order: Carnivora (Carnivora)
Family: Walrus (Odobenidae)
Genus: Walrus (Odobenus)
Under guard:
Three subspecies of walrus live in Russian waters: Atlantic, Pacific and Laptev. Laptevsky and Atlantic subspecies are listed in the Red Book Russian Federation and classified as category 2 (declining in numbers) and category 3 (rare), respectively. Pacific fish is considered a commercial fish and is produced according to a quota by the indigenous inhabitants of Chukotka. The Atlantic walrus lives in areas of the most intense human economic activity in the Arctic - it is this subspecies that is in the most vulnerable position.
Determining the number of walruses, like other marine mammals, is extremely difficult. All assessments existing today are largely of an expert nature. IN Lately The Pacific walrus population has stabilized at approximately 200 thousand individuals. The number of Laptev walruses is about 3 thousand individuals. In 1998, in the area of Franz Josef Land, the population was estimated at 6-12.5 thousand walruses. A population census carried out in 2006 at the Svalbard rookeries showed that about 2.6 thousand walruses live here.
The main threat to the walrus today is a change in its habitat (disappearance of ice), pollution of habitats as a result of increased industrial activity in the region, increased disturbance, and poaching for tusks.
Where he lives:
Walruses are common in all Arctic seas, but their range is not continuous. The Atlantic walrus in Russian waters inhabits the north of the Barents Sea (Spitsbergen, Franz Josef Land), the Novaya Zemlya area, the northern part White Sea, the southeastern part of the Barents Sea and the Kara Sea. The population of the Pacific walrus in the summer lives in the Chukchi, Bering and eastern parts of the East Siberian seas. For the winter, walruses migrate to the central and southeastern Bering Sea. Laptev walruses form the smallest and least studied population inhabiting the Laptev Sea.
In summer they usually live in shallow coastal waters, often forming haulouts on the shore; in winter they are usually found on pack ice.
Size:
The length of males reaches 2.7-4.5 m, females - 2.2-3.7 m, weight - up to 2 tons in males and up to 1 tons in females. A newborn cub is 1.2 m in length and about 70 kg in weight. Pacific walruses are larger than Atlantic walruses.
Appearance:
The body is large, massive, the skin is thick, covered with wrinkles and folds. The hair of young walruses is quite thick. Adults are covered with sparse or hairless hair, and males develop skin bumps on the neck and shoulder blades that are absent in adult females. A wide head with a short, blunt muzzle, covered with thick, hard whiskers, and a pair of long tusks. Both males and females have tusks, but in males they are straighter and longer. The front flippers are quite wide, similar to the flippers of eared seals, but shorter, the claws are very small. The back flippers are shaped more like those of real seals, but walruses can tuck them under themselves, like eared seals.
Behavior and lifestyle:
In the sea they are usually found in small groups of 3 to several dozen individuals. In summer they usually stay in shallow coastal waters, forming breeding grounds for resting and molting on sandy or rocky beaches and on floating ice. In winter they stick to pack ice. They often form aggregations of animals of the same sex and age. On solid substrate they move slowly and with difficulty, relying on all four limbs, but in water they are quite fast and mobile. They climb onto the ice with difficulty, using their fangs and front flippers.
Nutrition:
The basis of the walrus' diet is bottom invertebrates: bivalves, some types of shrimp, lobsters, polychaete worms and priapulids, octopuses and sea cucumbers, as well as some types of fish. In addition, walruses sometimes eat other seals: there are known cases of attacks on ringed seals and harp seal pups. The walrus usually feeds at depths not exceeding 80 m, although it can dive to 180 m.
Reproduction:
Female walruses become sexually mature at the age of 5-7 years, males - 7-10 years. The rutting period extends from January to June. Mating occurs in water; one male can mate with several females. Pregnancy is about 15 months. In April-June, the female gives birth to one calf on the ice. The newborn has short soft fur, light gray fins, thick white whiskers, and no teeth. For 6 months, the cub eats only mother's milk, and then gradually begins to eat solid food. By the end of the first year of life, the cub weighs three times more than at birth and has fangs about 2.5 cm long. The next year, the puppy remains with its mother, becoming more independent. At 2-3 years old he leaves his mother. Some females are accompanied by a young yearling and his two-year-old brother. After the cessation of milk feeding, the young animal continues to move with the maternal group. By the age of seven, the mature males leave, forming their own small groups in the winter or joining large aggregations of adult males in the summer, while the females remain in herds consisting of females with cubs. Seasonal segregation of the sexes occurs to some extent in all populations, but it occurs most sharply in the Bering and Chukchi Seas, Spitsbergen and Franz Josef Land. In the first region, in the spring, most males form separate haulouts and feed separately from females in the Bering Sea. At this time, young animals and females migrate north to the Chukchi Sea. In the summer, the isolation of the sexes is maintained, and in the fall the females return to more southern regions and meet with males in the Bering Strait, from where the animals go together to the reproductive haulouts. Immature males spend the winter separately, on pack ice, away from breeding sites.
Lifespan Walruses are about 40 years old.
Threats to the species:
The natural enemies of the walrus are killer whales and polar bears.
The walrus has always been an important marine fish species. The species experienced the greatest impact from commercial fishing in the 18th-19th centuries, when it was virtually destroyed in the northeastern Atlantic. The species is now slowly recovering.
Like other marine mammals, the greatest threat to walruses currently comes from ocean pollution. In addition, walruses are extremely sensitive to disturbance, and therefore any industrial activity in key habitats of the species can cause great harm to populations.
Interesting Facts:
A walrus has recently been observed attacking and killing a swimming reindeer in Svalbard. The described killing of a reindeer by a walrus can be interpreted as an attack on an object that the walrus mistook for a polar bear.
