Facts Of Walrus
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Carnivora
Family: Odobenidae
Genus: Odobenus
Scientific Name: Odobenus rosmarus
Common Name: Walrus
Other Name(s): Atlantic Walrus, Pacific Walrus
Group: Mammal
Number Of Species: 2
Location: Arctic Circle
Habitat: Ice floes and rocky, remote coastlines
Colour: Grey, Brown
Skin Type: Hair
Size (L): 2.25m - 3.5m (7.5ft - 11.5ft)
Weight: 400kg - 1,700kg (880lbs - 3,740lbs)
Top Speed: 35kph (22mph)
Diet: Carnivore
Prey: Shellfish, Worms, Snails
Predators: Humans, Killer Whales, Polar Bears
Lifestyle: Diurnal
Group Behaviour: Herd
Lifespan: 40 - 50 years
Age Of Sexual Maturity: 6 - 10 years
Gestation Period: 15 months
Average Litter Size: 1
Name Of Young: Pup
Age Of Weaning: 2 years
Conservation Status: Near Threatened
Estimated Population Size: 200,000 - 250,000
Biggest Threat: Hunting and habitat loss
Most Distinctive Feature: Long tusks that can grow up to 1m long
Fun Fact: Inhabits the freezing waters of the Arctic Circle
Walrus Classification and Evolution
The Walrus is a substantial marine warm blooded creature that is discovered occupying the solidifying cool and frigid waters of the Arctic Circle. Thought to be most firmly identified with Fur Seals, Walruses are the second biggest sea abiding warm blooded creatures that come aground to breed after Elephant Seals and are exceptionally unmistakable among pinnipeds because of their touchy bristles and long tusks. There are two distinct types of Walrus that differ somewhat in appearance yet mostly in geographic area which are the Atlantic Walrus and the Pacific Walrus. In any case, it is broadly bantered with respect to regardless of whether there is really a third animal categories known as the Laptev Walrus that is found in the Laptev Sea, which many accept to just be a populace of Pacific Walruses that particularly occupy the region. The Walrus is thought to be an undeniably powerless creature species in spite of the fact that social event information on these slippery animals can be troublesome so it is difficult to decide precisely the present status of Walrus populaces in nature.
Walrus Diet and Prey
Walruses are flesh eating creatures that exclusive chase and eat different creatures with a specific end goal to survive. They have a thick mustache containing about 450 extremely touchy hairs that assistance them to discover nourishment oblivious and dinky waters at profundities of around 100 meters underneath the surface. Walruses find the greater part of their go after the sea depths and are known to remove floods of both air and water into the residue to uncover sustenance covered up under the sand. They feed essentially by sucking sustenance into their mouths instead of utilizing their teeth to bite on it and are even known to grasp shellfish between their lips and suck the delicate animal out from inside the shell, before spitting the spend into the water. Walruses feed on a wide range of prey species including shellfishes, snails, worms, squid, octopuses and even a few types of moderate moving fish. Some Walrus populaces are likewise known to chase seals.
Walrus Predators and Threats
Because of the huge size and forceful nature of these marine warm blooded animals, Walruses have couple of predators in their indigenous habitats except for cases of Killer Whales and the periodic overcome Polar Bear, as they can without much of a stretch guard themselves with their huge tusks. People are the most widely recognized predators of the Walrus as they are chased for the meat, skin and oil by neighborhood populaces (alongside the less alluring chasing of them for their ivory from non-local individuals). They are likewise undermined in specific regions by water contamination including oil defilement that influences them specifically yet in addition through their prey, alongside expansive angling vessels that reap the creatures that the Walruses go after and abandon them with less sustenance, as well as aim serious commotion contamination in the ordinarily peaceful and remote waters.
Walrus Interesting Facts and Features
Walruses are fantastically all around adjusted to living in a portion of the coldest areas on the planet with tough skin that covers a thick layer of (fat) that keeps them warm. Their tremendous tusks were initially thought to help them when nourishing yet are know known to be more do with economic wellbeing and even help with portability. Walruses dive their tusks into ice floes to enable them to pull their colossal bodies out of the water yet in addition stay their tusks into the ice so they can rest while their bodies stay submerged underneath the waves. Walruses are likewise known to utilize their long and great tusks like a pick-hatchet to cut their way through the thick ice. Walruses feed in the dimness of the sea floor and are known to usually jump to profundities of somewhere in the range of 80m and 100m for about thirty minutes on end. Nonetheless, ongoing examinations demonstrate that relying upon the accessibility of prey, Walruses have been known to achieve substantially more profound profundities of up to 180 meters underneath the surface of the water.
Walruses have extensive and stretched bodies that are more extensive at the head and neck and decrease towards their tail which is implanted in a web of skin. Their intense and wrinkled skin is secured by a layer of scanty, coarse hairs and is by and large dark or darker in shading. Be that as it may, while sunbathing out of the water, the skin of the Walrus (which can be up to 4cm thick) builds up a pink-red colouration. Walruses have two sets of flippers that are utilized to impel these extensive creatures with incredible deftness through the water, with their bodies controlled by their back flippers while the front flippers are utilized to guide them the correct way. Ashore, they move about gracelessly on each of the fours, twisting their back flippers underneath them at right points to give them more help. The skin on the base of their flippers is harsh and knobbly which keeps these gigantic creatures from slipping on the ice. Walruses have long tusks (additional long upper canine teeth) that are utilized for both battling and to dive into the ice when they are hauling their substantial bodies out of the water.
Walrus Distribution and Habitat
Walruses are found all through the northern Atlantic and Pacific Oceans where they occupy ice floes and rough coastlines, alongside investing a lot of energy in the solidifying cool water. Amid the winter months when the ice is at its thickest, Walruses have a tendency to favor zones of more slender ice that they can without much of a stretch achievement to the surface from the water underneath. In the hotter summer months when the ice retreats, Walruses can be discovered all the more ordinarily on remote territories of rough coastline. In spite of being appropriate to the solidifying conditions in the far north, Walruses have now and again been known to wander promote south in regions of Central Canada, around the United Kingdom and even the extent that the waters near the Spanish drift. They do in any case, invest the majority of their energy in and around the Arctic Circle where they are ending up progressively under-danger from an Earth-wide temperature boost which is quickly draining the ice that these creatures have learnt to depend on.
Walrus Behavior and Lifestyle
Walruses are extraordinarily amiable creatures that live in vast groups on the ice floes that can contain up to a great many people and comprise basically on females (dairy animals) with their young, alongside various predominant guys (bulls). When they withdraw into the water to nourish, these colossal groups separate into littler groups numbering as few as ten people so there is less rivalry for sustenance. Male Walruses are twofold the heaviness of their female partners and have any longer tusks which can grow up to a meter long and are utilized basically to fight with contenders for the most supported rearing destinations and the females that dwell there. They are known to make an assortment of vocal sounds including noisy cries amid the mating season that are effectively and noisily delivered on account of the two pockets of air in their necks.
Walrus Reproduction and Life Cycles
Walruses most ordinarily breed amidst winter between the long stretches of January and March. After a growth period that goes on for around 15 months, a solitary little guy is conceived on the ice measuring up to 1.2 meters in length and weighing up 75kg. Walrus little guys have short and delicate hair covering their bodies, pale dark flippers and a thick, white mustache with no obvious teeth. They suckle just on their mom's drain for their initial a half year when they start to eat more strong nourishments. After their first year, Walrus puppies are relatively triple the size they were during childbirth and start to wind up increasingly autonomous, albeit have a tendency to stay near their staggeringly defensive moms until the point that they are a few years of age. Youthful females will frequently stay near their mom however guys start to wander far from the crowd to join all-male single man gatherings. Female Walruses can duplicate at around 6 or 7 years old however guys are not develop until the point that they are no less than 10 years of age yet will frequently not effectively replicate until the point that they can demonstrate their predominance around 5 years after the fact.
Walrus Relationship with Humans
For a great many years, neighborhood individuals have thought of Walruses as being fundamentally the same as people as they are known to show characteristics of knowledge, are ease back to replicate and take long and great care of their more powerless youthful. Walruses have additionally been chased by individuals in their local nations for a large number of years as a decent wellspring of sustenance however in later years they have likewise been progressively chased for the ivory in their tusks, which is thought to be second in both size and quality just to those of elephants. Vast scale chasing has crushed Walrus populaces, especially in specific zones yet it is likewise expanding measures of contamination that is devastatingly affecting wild populaces.
Walrus Conservation Status and Life Today
Today, the Walrus is thought to be species that is Near Threatened in its common habitat despite the fact that information is difficult to accumulate on these base bolstering vertebrates. They have been declining in number since the eighteenth century with expanding levels of chasing and human action and all the more as of late are winding up progressively debilitated by the diminishing measure of ice because of a dangerous atmospheric devation. In spite of the fact that the correct populace measure is obscure, there are assessed to be somewhere in the range of 200,000 and 250,000 people staying in the solidifying waters of the Arctic Circle.
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