Walrus

Is what is known as a pinniped. Their name means (pinni) wing, and (ped) meaning foot. This means they have a wing like feet.

Walruses are the very largest pinnipeds in the Arctic.

They enjoy living in shallow areas in the water and ice floes or land to lie on.

There are two kinds of Walrus, The Atlantic and the Pacific Walrus.

Walrus

Walrus migrate, which means they travel a great distance in the spring and again in the fall to follow their food sources. The movement of the ice floes, advancing and retreating seems to tell the walrus when its time to go.

A male Walrus, which is called a bull, is a very large animal who can weigh well over 4000 pounds, or two tons. Females, called cows are much smaller and weigh about half what the bull weighs.

The bulls may also be about 12 feet long, while cows reach usually only about 9 feet. Walrus can be any color from pink to deep brown.

Males have amazingly long tusks, which they use to fight prior to breeding and long whiskers.

Very often Walrus are taken by hunters for their tusks which are no longer legal to sell in the United States. Their tusks are huge, long curving canine teeth, and both male and female walrus have tusks.

Walrus eat snails, crabs and shrimp and sometimes even worms.

They breed in March of each year but strangely, the fetus lies dormant, and does not begin to grow until about June.

The babies, called calves, weigh anywhere from 90 to 130 pounds and are deep brownish gray when they are born.

Another strange fact about a walrus is that you can tell how old he is by the number of rings on his teeth. Just like a tree grows rings, so does a walrus.

If his tooth was to break and you would count the rings, you would know how old he was.

Most bull walrus get killed by hunters, however when they do not, they can live to be about 35 years old in the wild.

Find out more about the Walrus over at Wikipedia »