NL·0571Herbarium of the Nature Library
- Name
- Odobenus rosmarus
- Family
- Odobenidae
- Native to
- Arctic seas: Pacific walrus in the Bering and Chukchi seas; Atlantic walrus from Canadian Arctic and Greenland to Svalbard and the Kara Sea
- Habitat
- Sea ice, Polar seas, Shallow continental shelf
Walrus
Odobenus rosmarus
Also calledAiviq (Inuktitut/Iñupiaq) · Morzh (Russian) · Hvalross (Norwegian) · Rostungur (Icelandic) · Morsa (Spanish/Portuguese)
A gigantic, tusked pinniped of the Arctic, gathering in haul-outs of thousands on ice floes and beaches. Walruses find clams by touch with hundreds of sensitive whiskers and suck them out of their shells. Loss of summer sea ice now forces enormous crowds onto shore, where stampedes kill calves.
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. This species is subdivided into two subspecies: the Atlantic walrus, which lives in the Atlantic Ocean, and the Pacific walrus, which lives in the Pacific Ocean. Wikipedia
What it can do
- iUses tusks up to about 1 m long as ice picks to haul out — 'Odobenus' means 'tooth-walker'
- iiHundreds of stiff, sensitive whiskers detect clams in seafloor mud
- iiiProduces powerful suction that pulls clam bodies from their shells, and jets water to dig them out
- ivCan slow its heart rate on dives; most feeding dives last under 10 minutes, though dives of about 25 minutes have been recorded
In the field
Field marks
- aHuge, wrinkled cinnamon-brown to pinkish body (pinker when warm)
- bTwo long ivory tusks in both sexes (longer in males)
- cBroad, bristly 'moustache' of whiskers
- dNo external ears; hind flippers can turn forward to walk on land
- eSigns: haul-out beaches with flattened gravel, shells and tusk-gouged ice
- Voice
- Loud roars, grunts and barks on haul-outs; underwater, males produce knocks, clicks and a ringing bell-like sound.
- Not to be confused with
- Bearded seal has long whiskers but no tusks and is far smaller. Elephant seals (not Arctic) have a trunk-like nose and no tusks.
- Where to see it
- Round Island, Walrus Islands State Game Sanctuary (Alaska); Svalbard (Poolepynten, Torellneset); Point Lay, Alaska; Cape Serdtse-Kamen and Wrangel Island (Chukotka); Igloolik and Foxe Basin (Nunavut)
- When
- Svalbard and Round Island haul-outs June–September
Listen
Looking for field recordings…
Life & habits
- Diet
- Mainly bivalve molluscs; also worms, snails, crabs; occasionally seals
- Habitat
- Shallow continental-shelf waters with sea ice; land haul-outs when ice is absent
- Size
- Males 2.7–3.6 m and up to about 1,500 kg; females smaller
- Lifespan
- About 30–40 years
Extremely gregarious, lying in dense heaps. Males sing underwater courtship songs of knocks, taps and bell-like tones for days in winter.
Where it lives
Recorded sightings
—
geo-referenced records in GBIF, from museums, herbaria and field observers.
Native range
Arctic seas: Pacific walrus in the Bering and Chukchi seas; Atlantic walrus from Canadian Arctic and Greenland to Svalbard and the Kara Sea
Drag the globe to turn it. Dots are where records exist, not a range map; darker means more records.
In the old herbals & bestiaries
Woodcuts and engravings matched from the Source Library’s scanned books by name. Plates marked “relative” show a close kin rather than this exact species. Click a plate to read the page it came from, with translation.
Garden of Health
Jacob Meydenbach · 1491 · p.690
Ortus sanitatis
1491 · p.693
Garden of Health
Jacob Meydenbach · 1491 · p.691
History of Animals, Book II: On Oviparous Quadrupeds
Conrad Gessner · 1586 · p.546
Theater of Earthly Creatures
Anonymous · 1672 · p.272
History of Animals, Book II: On Oviparous Quadrupeds
Conrad Gessner · 1586 · p.736
History of Monsters
Ulisse Aldrovandi · 1642 · p.895
History of Monsters
Ulisse Aldrovandi · 1642 · p.897
De Piscibus Libri V et De Cetis Liber Unus
Ulisse Aldrovandi · 1661 · p.746
In the stacks
Searching the stacks…
Every page naming Odobenus rosmarus in the Biodiversity Heritage Library →
Marginalia
The 12th-century Lewis chessmen, found in Scotland, were carved mainly from walrus ivory, likely traded from Norway and Greenland. Norse Greenlanders paid tithes and trade in walrus tusks.
Curiosity
Walruses can sleep while floating vertically, inflating air sacs in their necks like built-in life jackets.
Kinship
Fact-checked: 1 correction made to this sheet. Photographs: iNaturalist contributors under the licences shown. Records: GBIF.org. Historical plates: Source Library (CC BY-SA 4.0; originals public domain). Summary text: Nature Library editors and Wikipedia (CC BY-SA). Medicinal and edibility notes are historical and educational, not advice. iNaturalist taxon 41766.