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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).Etymology
The English word walrus comes from the Dutch walrus, apparently
a folk-etymology inversion from an Old Norse form resembling hrosshvalr,
a kind of whale. 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.
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Walruses mate
in the water and give birth on land or ice floes. They feed in
the water, diving to depths of 300 ft (91 m), sometimes staying
under for as long as a half hour. Clams and mollusks form a large
part of their diet. Male walruses compete for territory, often
fighting each other; the winners in these fights breeds with large
numbers of females. Older male walruses frequently bear large
scars from these bloody but rarely fatal battles. 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 Kenai Peninsula.
Above Images Come From The US Fish & Wildlife Service
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