Animalscaretips
With wrinkled brown and pink hides, walruses are distinguished by their long white tusks, grizzly whiskers, flat flipper, and bodies full of blubber.
- What does a walrus do?
- How big can a walrus get?
- What Colour is a walrus?
- How tall is a walrus?
- Are walruses friendly to humans?
- What can eat a walrus?
- What do walruses use their teeth for?
- What do walruses use their whiskers for?
- What's the difference between a walrus and a sea lion?
- Do walruses eat fish?
- Where can walruses be found?
- What is bigger an elephant seal or a walrus?
- Are walrus tusks ivory?
- Where do walruses sleep?
- How many teeth do walrus have?
What does a walrus do?
They dive underwater and use their whiskers to detect the shellfish in the dark waters of the ocean. According to the Smithsonian Institution's Arctic Study Center, a walrus can eat up to 4,000 clams in one feeding. When food is hard to come by, walruses will also eat the carcasses of dead seals.
How big can a walrus get?
Walrus are huge
Adult walrus are typically about 7.25 to 11.5 feet in size and can weigh up to 1.5 tons (3,000 lbs or 1,360 kg).
What Colour is a walrus?
The color of walrus varies. When walrus are in cold water, they may appear pale brown, grey, or even yellowish. On land, when walrus are warm, they are pinkish to darker brown.
How tall is a walrus?
Male walruses can reach 3 – 3.5 meters long (9.84 – 11.48 feet) and weigh up to1,200 kg (2,645 pounds), while females usually grow to 2.5 meters long (8.2 feet) and weigh around 900 kg (1,984 pounds). 3. Walrus calves are born weighing about 85 kg (187 pounds) and are approximately 1.3 meters long (4.26 feet).
Are walruses friendly to humans?
They are most known to attack people in boats and can cause serious harm with their tusks or by capsizing a boat or kayak. There is one documented case in Spitzbergen (Svalbard) where walruses capsized a boat killing all aboard.
What can eat a walrus?
Because of their size and tusks, walruses only have two natural predators: orcas (killer whales) and polar bears. However, both predators prefer to attack easier prey like seals.
What do walruses use their teeth for?
3. Both male and female walruses have large tusks. They use these tusks to help them haul themselves out of the water and onto sea ice. Their tusks are also used for fighting with other walruses, and defence against predators.
What do walruses use their whiskers for?
Arctic Adaptations
As their favorite meals, particularly shellfish, are found near the dark ocean floor, walruses use their extremely sensitive whiskers, called mustacial vibrissae, as detection devices.
What's the difference between a walrus and a sea lion?
Unlike the sea lions, walrus have tusks and whiskers. The tusk and stiff whiskers are the main features that differentiate a walrus from a sea lion. Walrus is also bigger than sea lions. Though walrus shares certain physical features with sea lions, it does not have the external ear as that of sea lions.
Do walruses eat fish?
Food Preferences & Resources
Walruses prefer molluscs - mainly bivalves such as clams. They also eat many other kinds of benthic invertebrates including worms, gastropods, cephalopods, crustaceans, sea cucumbers, and other soft-bodied animals. Walruses may occasionally prey on fishes such as polar cod.
Where can walruses be found?
Walruses live in Arctic and sub-Arctic regions of the world near the North Pole. They can be found in the Pacific Ocean, Atlantic Ocean, and Arctic Ocean. 3. Both male and female walruses have large tusks that clearly distinguish them from other marine mammals.
What is bigger an elephant seal or a walrus?
Among the most amazing of pinnipeds are the elephant seals. ... They are the biggest of pinnipeds – bigger even than walruses – there being a record of a giant male Southern elephant seal that was between 6.5 and 6.8 m long and weighed over 4000 kg (Carwardine 1995).
Are walrus tusks ivory?
Walrus tusk ivory comes from two modified upper canines. ... Whole cross-sections of walrus tusks are generally oval with widely spaced indentations. The dentine is composed of two types: primary dentine and secondary dentine (often called osteodentine). Primary dentine has a classical ivory appearance.
Where do walruses sleep?
Marine Mammals and Sleep
When walruses sleep in the water, they usually lie at the bottom, float along the surface, or lean against something while in a standing position. They can even hook their tusks onto an ice floe and sleep that way. Like elephants, walruses can go for days without sleep.
How many teeth do walrus have?
Most walruses have 18 teeth. The two canine teeth in the upper jaw are modified into long ivory tusks.
