Creature Day.....Walrus

 

Hello everyone it is Tuesday also known as creature day and this weeks creature is the Walrus, heard of it, I have.

The walrus is a large pinniped marine mammal with discontinuous distribution about the North Pole in the Arctic Ocean and subarctic seas of the Northern Hemisphere. It is the only extant species in the family Odobenidae and genus Odobenus.

Walrus tusks are actually big canine teeth. Walruses use their tusks to help them climb up on ice, fight predators, and threaten and fight each other. Both male and female walruses have tusks. As it uses its tusks to pull itself from the water has earned it the nickname “tooth walker”, it also uses them to to break breathing holes in the artic ice from underneath. The tusks can also use them in fights over territory or females.

Their whiskers are called “vibrissae” and help if feel for food especilly shellfish on the dark ocean floor.

Some walruses kill and eat seals and seabirds.

It has wrinkled pinky-brown skin and a blubber-filled body combine to make this 3.5m marine mammual unique.

The Atlantic walrus lives in the seasonally ice-covered northern waters of Canada, Greenland, Norway and Russia. The Pacific walrus has a wide range between Russia and the US (Alaska), from the Bering to the Chukchi Seas, as well as the Laptev Sea.

Walrus tusks are continually growing so they regularly outgrow their caps, which then loosen and fall off.

Females begin breeding at 6-7 years of age and generally give birth every 2 years. Males are mature at 8-10 years of age, but generally cannot successfully compete against older, larger males for females until they are 15 years old. Walruses may live up to 40 years.