Walrus | Odobenidae

Walrussen | Morsas

One species, and unmistakable in every part. The upper canines grow throughout life into tusks half a metre long and more, in both sexes; they serve to haul the animal onto the ice and to settle who is strongest, and not for digging. The digging is done by the muzzle, with a few hundred short thick whiskers dragged over the sea floor to find shellfish; the flesh is sucked out and the shell left behind. Unlike the true seals, the hind limbs can be folded under the body, so a walrus walks over the ice instead of hitching. In old bulls the skin is centimetres thick and heavily callused on the neck; underwater the animal looks pale as the blood withdraws, and on the ice it flushes pink as soon as it returns.