09/03/2026
Featured Wildlife: The Walrus
Fossil records indicate that walruses have been around for at least 2.5 million years. Found today mainly in the Arctic Circle, they currently number around 250,000. Well-recognized because of their massive size (up to 4000 pounds and 12 feet long) and their distinctive tusks (30 inches), they are still not particularly well-known because they live in such remote areas. Yet they are surprisingly smart and social animals, with some interesting capabilities:
—Their distinctive tusks are highly useful for living in the Arctic. Walruses use them like ice axes to haul themselves out of the water and onto the ice and to move around—as in this brief video: https://us.list-manage.com/msw9KsHjHAE?e=1357c28cb9&c2id=8791aeddaa09d5a721241edff6685d23
(Their scientific name, Odobenus rosmarus, is Latin for “tooth-walking sea horse”.)
—Their hundreds of long, highly sensitive whiskers act like human fingers to probe the dark ocean floor for hidden food, like clams. And when pursuing other prey these massive creatures are surprisingly fast, able to swim at speeds exceeding 20 mph.
—Extremely sociable, they can often be seen (usually segregated by gender) lounging on the ice with hundreds of companions, basically piled upon each other. Walruses also show empathy by protecting and coming to the aid of injured group members—adopting and caring for orphaned calves or tending to aging or exhausted mates.
They have sophisticated vocal communication, able to create a wide range of sounds including bell-like chimes, knocks, pulses, clicks, and whistles. During the mating season a male can “sing” continuously for hours or even days.
—They have impressive learning skills, able to problem-solve and learn from one another. One walrus who was observed while, unfortunately, in captivity figured out how to push a rubber toy against a pool window to make some interesting squeaking sounds, and that behavior that was quickly learned and copied by others.
As one article put it, they are "heavyweights with unexpected skills".
Their main threat historically has been human hunting. Since the times of the Vikings they were hunted for their tusks, and a massive overhunting in the 18th and 19th centuries almost wiped them out. Today their major challenge comes from global warming, which is causing a rapid melting of their essential sea ice habitat. In addition, human development facilitated by a warming Arctic will greatly expand—with extensive oil and gas exploration and mining operations plus increased shipping traffic intruding into areas walruses previously had basically to themselves. As one article put it, with the dire predictions for their long-term future, “the charismatic walrus should be the poster child for climate change.”
Unfortunately their current International Union for Conservation of Nature ranking of “Vulnerable” is seen as a hindrance. Many conservationists believe their situation is far more perilous than that and is not captured by the IUCN methodologies, for various reasons, including that while climate models universally predict catastrophic sea-ice loss by the end of the century, the collapse of the walrus population is still in its early stages and IUCN’s focus is on what’s happened so far rather than what models say will happen. So extensive efforts are underway to address the “data deficit” on the difficult-to-track walrus, and many people are pitching in—including, for example, some 40,000 volunteers participating in the British “Walrus from Space” crowdsourcing program to sift through millions of satellite images to document changes in walrus populations. Central to their continued existence will be slowing the pace of global warming, but a variety of other efforts like this can make a difference for these remarkable—even charming—creatures who live far away from human view but not human impact.
Photos by Tony Wu at Nature Picture Library
