? Walrus | ||||||||||||||
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| [image] Pacific Walrus | ||||||||||||||
| Scientific classification | ||||||||||||||
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| Binomial name | ||||||||||||||
| Odobenus rosmarus ( Linnaeus, 1758) | ||||||||||||||
| Subspecies | ||||||||||||||
| O. rosmarus rosmarus O. rosmarus divergens |
Walruses are large semi-aquatic mammals that live in the cold Arctic seas of the Northern Hemisphere. Two subspecies exist: the Atlantic, Odobenus rosmarus rosmarus, and the Pacific, Odobenus rosmarus divergens. The Pacific walrus is slightly larger, the male weighing up to 4000 lb (1.8 t).
The walrus is a member of order Carnivora and is the only species in the family Odobenidae. The compound odobenus comes from odous (Greek for "tooth") and baino (Greek for "walk"), based on observations of walruses using their tusks to pull themselves out of the water. Rosmarus originates in the Swedish word for walrus. Divergens in Latin means "turning apart", referring to the tusks.
Pacific walruses spend the summer north of the Bering Strait in the Chukchi Sea along the north shore of eastern Siberia, around Wrangel Island, in the Beaufort Sea along the north shore of Alaska, and in the waters between those locations.
Smaller numbers of males summer in the Gulf of Anadyr on the south shore of the Chukchi Peninsula of Siberia and in Bristol Bay off the south shore of southern Alaska west of the Alaska Peninsula.
In the spring and fall they congregate in the Bering Strait, adjacent to the west shores of Alaska, and in the Gulf of Anadyr. They winter to the south in the Bering Sea along the eastern shore of Siberia south to the northern part of the Kamchatka Peninsula, and along the southern shore of Alaska.
Walruses have a breeding season in mid-winter, a time spent in the southern Bering sea. The males show off in the water for the females who view them from pack ice. Males compete with each other aggressively for this display-space. Mating probably takes place in the water. After fertilization the fertilized egg remains dormant for several months, then a gestation period of 11 months follows. When a calf is born it is over 3 ft (1 m) long and able to swim. Birth takes place on the pack ice; the calf nurses for about 2 years, spending 3 to 5 years with its mother. Females mature at about 6 years, males at 9 or 10. A walrus lives about 40 years.
Federal laws in both the USA and in Canada protect walruses and set quotas on the yearly harvest. Only under rare circumstances may non-native hunters gain permission to kill a walrus legally. The law prohibits the export of raw tusks from Alaska, but walrus-ivory products may come on the market if first sculpted into Scrimshaw by a native craftsman. Commercial auction sites such as EBay make a large selection of "pre-ban" walrus ivory available.
About 15,000 Atlantic walruses exist: they live in the Canadian Arctic, in the waters of Greenland and in the waters of the western portion of the Russian Arctic. The Atlantic walrus once enjoyed a range that extended south to Cape Cod and occurred in large numbers in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
Lewis Carroll's famous poem The Walrus and the Carpenter inspired the 1967 song "I Am the Walrus" by The Beatles.
The Walrus is a Canadian news magazine.
In Salman Rushdie's children's book Haroun and the Sea of Stories, The Walrus is the name of the imposing Grand Controller of Gup.
In the song "I Am the Walrus" by The Beatles, John Lennon is "the Walrus." However, in order to deliberately confuse his fans, Lennon sings in the later song "Glass onion" that "the Walrus was Paul".
Walrus is also the name of Cap'tain Flint's ship in "Treasure Island" (R.L.Stevenson)
Chicago Walrus