Animal
Walrus
The walrus is a big, whiskery animal of the icy north. It has two long tusks and loves to rest in a crowd.
The walrus is a huge Arctic sea mammal with long ivory tusks and a thick mustache of whiskers. It feels for clams on the sea floor, sucks out the soft part, and rests in big, noisy groups on sea ice and beaches.
Odobenus rosmarus, the only living member of the family Odobenidae, is a pinniped of shallow Arctic shelf seas. It forages by touch with sensitive vibrissae, feeds by suction on bivalves, depends on sea ice for resting and calving, and is listed by the IUCN as Vulnerable.
Photo: Nixette, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Meet the walrus
The walrus is a big animal that lives in the cold sea.
It has two long white tusks and a bushy mustache. Its skin is thick and wrinkly. It swims well, and it rests on ice.
The walrus is a giant relative of seals and sea lions. A big male can be about 3.7 meters long and weigh about 1,700 kilograms, as much as a small car.
Both males and females have two long tusks, and they have a thick mustache of stiff whiskers. Their skin is very thick, about 2 to 4 centimeters, and covered in short reddish hair that makes them look cinnamon-brown. Walruses have no ear flaps, only small ear holes.
The walrus is a pinniped, the group that includes seals and sea lions, and the only living species in the family Odobenidae. Britannica gives adult males a maximum length of about 3.7 meters and weight of about 1,700 kilograms, roughly a third larger than females.
Two subspecies are recognized: the Atlantic walrus (O. r. rosmarus) and the slightly larger Pacific walrus (O. r. divergens). The grayish skin is 2 to 4 centimeters thick, deeply folded around the shoulders and sparsely covered with short reddish hair. There are no external ear flaps.
Quick facts
- Group
- Mammal
- Length
- up to 3.7 m
- Weight
- up to 1,700 kg
- Lifespan in the wild
- up to 40 years
Where it lives
Walruses live in the far north.
They swim in cold, shallow seas. They rest on floating ice and on rocky beaches.
Walruses live in the Arctic, around the top of the world. Pacific walruses live in the Bering and Chukchi seas between Alaska and Russia. Atlantic walruses live in the northern waters of Canada, Greenland, Norway and Russia.
They stay in shallow water near coasts and the edges of the sea ice, because their food is on the sea floor. In winter Pacific walruses rest on pack ice in the Bering Sea, and in spring many mothers and young drift north with the melting ice.
The walrus has a discontinuous circumpolar range on Arctic continental shelves. The Pacific subspecies occupies the northern Bering and Chukchi seas, hauling out on sea ice and on the coasts and islands of Russia and Alaska; the Atlantic subspecies occurs in the northern waters of Canada, Greenland, Norway (Svalbard) and Russia.
Pacific walruses migrate with the ice: females and young move north to the Chukchi Sea in spring, while most adult males stay in the Bering Sea, especially Bristol Bay, and the population returns south ahead of the advancing ice in autumn. The map shades each country where walruses live, though only along its Arctic coasts.
Continents
Its habitat
Where can you find this animal?
- Lives here naturally · Countries and seas named by a scientific source
- Sightings recorded · Records of wild sightings (GBIF)
Lives here naturally · Countries and seas named by a scientific source
Shallow Arctic seas and coasts: the Bering and Chukchi seas off Alaska and Russia (Pacific walrus), and the northern waters of Canada, Greenland, Norway's Svalbard and Russia (Atlantic walrus). Only the far-northern coasts of each country.
Places: United States, Russia, Canada, Greenland, Norway and Arctic Ocean.
Source: Alaska Department of Fish and Game; NAMMCO · checked October 2026
Sightings recorded · Records of wild sightings (GBIF)
Counts of GBIF records of wild observations (human and machine) and preserved specimens. Records include introduced populations, vagrants, escaped or released animals and misidentifications, so a country with records is not necessarily part of the native range.
Wild sightings have been recorded in United States, Russia, Norway, Canada, Netherlands, Greenland, UK, Denmark and 18 more places.
Source: gbif · checked October 2026
Range maps show where scientists say an animal lives, often country by country. An animal may live in only part of a country shown, and sightings records can include animals that wandered far from home.
Clams for dinner
Walruses eat clams and other soft animals from the sea floor.
They feel for food with their whiskers. Then they suck the clam right out of its shell!
Walruses dive to the sea floor, usually 10 to 50 meters down, and root around in the mud with their snouts. They find food by touch, using hundreds of sensitive whiskers, because the bottom is often too dark and muddy to see.
Most of their food is clams and mussels, plus snails, worms, sea cucumbers and shrimp. A walrus pulls its tongue back like a piston, which makes a strong suction, and slurps the soft body out of the shell. The empty shells fall back to the sea floor.
Walruses are benthic feeders, foraging at depths of usually 10 to 50 meters and rarely deeper than 80. They plow the sediment with the snout and detect prey with their vibrissae. Bivalves dominate the diet, and NAMMCO reports that the soft siphons and feet make up about 95 percent of what is eaten. Prey is extracted by suction generated by rapidly retracting the piston-like tongue.
Intake is large. One walrus tagged in northeast Greenland made 412 dives in 74 hours and was estimated to eat about 57 kilograms of bivalves a day, close to 5 percent of its body weight. Some walruses, mostly older males, also eat seals and seabirds.
Did you know?
Walruses use their tusks to climb onto the ice.
Walruses dig their tusks into the ice and use them to pull their heavy bodies out of the water.
Tusks serve as ice anchors when hauling out, as well as for display and defense; they are not used to dig prey.
Tusks, whiskers and blubber
A walrus's tusks are very long teeth.
Walruses use them to pull themselves onto the ice. Their whiskers are like fingers that feel for food.
A walrus's tusks are its upper canine teeth, and they keep growing throughout its life. In males they can reach about a meter long. Walruses use their tusks to haul themselves out onto ice, to break breathing holes and to show off to other walruses. They do not use them to dig for food.
On land a walrus can turn its back flippers forward under its body, so it can shuffle along on all four limbs. Its very thick skin and blubber keep it warm in freezing water.
The tusks are elongated upper canines that grow throughout life; Britannica gives males tusks of about a meter and 5.4 kilograms. They function mainly in social display and dominance, defense, and hauling out onto ice, and help open holes in the ice, but they are not used to dig prey.
Unlike true seals, walruses can rotate the hind flippers forward beneath the body and move on land on all four limbs, as sea lions do. Apart from the tusks the teeth are flat. Thick skin and a layer of blubber provide insulation in water near freezing.
Growing up
A baby walrus is called a calf.
It is born on the ice in spring. Its mother looks after it for about two years.
Walruses mate in the water in winter. The egg pauses before it starts to grow, so the whole pregnancy lasts about 15 months, the longest of any seal or sea lion.
The calf is born on floating ice in late spring and weighs about 60 kilograms. It stays with its mother for about two years, and their bond is very strong. By the time it goes off on its own, it can weigh about 340 kilograms. Mothers usually have a calf every two years.
Mating takes place in the water between January and March. Delayed implantation of the embryo extends total gestation to about 15 to 16 months, the longest among pinnipeds. Calves of about 60 kilograms are born on ice floes in late spring.
The mother-calf bond lasts about two years and, according to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, is the longest and strongest of any pinniped; a calf weighs about 340 kilograms when it becomes independent. Females first breed at 6 to 7 years and usually give birth every two years. Males mature at 8 to 10 but rarely win mates before about 15.
Life in a crowd
Walruses love company.
They rest close together in big groups. They grunt, bellow and push for the best spot.
Walruses are very social. They travel and rest in groups, sometimes of more than 100, and on land a haulout can hold tens of thousands of walruses packed close together.
Tusks matter in walrus society. When two males meet, they turn their heads to show their tusks, and the one with smaller tusks usually backs away. In the breeding season males display in the water and make clicking and bell-like sounds to attract females.
Walruses are highly gregarious, resting in herds that can number in the tens of thousands at land haulouts. Dominance is set largely by body and tusk size: rivals display by raising and turning their heads, and evenly matched males may fight.
During the winter breeding season males display underwater with clicking and bell-like sounds, and mating occurs in the water. On crowded haulouts females jostle for space with tusk threats. Natural predators are polar bears and, occasionally, killer whales; the Alaska Department of Fish and Game notes that mothers become dangerously aggressive if their calf is threatened.
Did you know?
Walruses suck clams right out of their shells.
A walrus pulls its tongue back like a piston to make strong suction, then slurps the soft part of a clam out of its shell.
Rapid retraction of the piston-like tongue creates suction strong enough to pull bivalve siphons and feet from their shells.
Walruses and melting ice
Walruses need sea ice to rest on.
The ice is getting smaller in summer. People are studying walruses and giving them quiet places to rest.
The IUCN lists the walrus as Vulnerable. Long ago, commercial hunting greatly reduced their numbers. Today Indigenous communities in Canada and Greenland still hunt some walruses for food, and walruses are protected in Norway.
The biggest worry now is shrinking sea ice. With less ice, walruses must crowd onto beaches, where they are far from good feeding areas. If something frightens a packed herd, the walruses rush to the water and young calves can be hurt.
Commercial hunting depleted walrus populations in the past; today walruses are protected from commercial sealing but subsistence hunting continues, managed in Greenland with scientific advice from NAMMCO. North Atlantic walruses number about 30,000, and a 2006 survey estimated about 129,000 Pacific walruses, with wide uncertainty (55,000 to 507,000).
Loss of summer sea ice is the leading threat. Walruses use ice as a drifting platform for resting, calving and reaching feeding grounds. More time on crowded coastal haulouts limits feeding and raises the risk of stampedes that kill calves and yearlings. Shipping, pollution and entanglement may grow as the Arctic opens.
IUCN Red List
How is the walrus doing in the wild?
- Least Concern
- Near Threatened
- Vulnerable (this animal)
- Endangered
- Critically Endangered
- Extinct in the Wild
- Extinct
Vulnerable
At high risk of disappearing from the wild.
See the IUCN Red List assessment · The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2022.2
Amazing facts
-
Walruses use their tusks to climb onto the ice.
Walruses dig their tusks into the ice and use them to pull their heavy bodies out of the water.
Tusks serve as ice anchors when hauling out, as well as for display and defense; they are not used to dig prey.
-
Walruses suck clams right out of their shells.
A walrus pulls its tongue back like a piston to make strong suction, then slurps the soft part of a clam out of its shell.
Rapid retraction of the piston-like tongue creates suction strong enough to pull bivalve siphons and feet from their shells.
-
A walrus's skin can be as thick as your finger is long.
Walrus skin can be up to 4 centimeters thick, and it is covered with short reddish hair.
The hide measures 2 to 4 centimeters thick, with deep folds around the shoulders of adult males.
-
Walrus moms and babies stay together for two years.
A walrus calf stays with its mother for about two years, the longest bond of any seal or sea lion.
The roughly two-year mother-calf bond is the longest among pinnipeds.
Words to know
- tusk
- a very long tooth that sticks out of the mouth
- whiskers
- stiff hairs on the face that feel things by touch
- haulout
- a place where walruses or seals come out of the water to rest
- pinniped
- a sea mammal with flippers, such as a seal, sea lion or walrus
- sea ice
- frozen seawater that floats on the ocean
- vulnerable
- facing a high risk of becoming endangered in the wild
Discovery challenge
-
What are a walrus's tusks?
What are walrus tusks?
Which teeth form the walrus's tusks?
- Long teeth
- Horns
- Claws
Show the answer
Long teeth
Tusks are very long teeth.
Tusks are long upper canine teeth that keep growing all through a walrus's life.
They are elongated upper canines that grow throughout life.
-
How does a walrus find clams?
How does a walrus find food on the dark sea floor?
Which sense is most important when a walrus forages?
- It feels with its whiskers
- It digs with its tusks
- It looks with a flashlight
Show the answer
It feels with its whiskers
Its whiskers feel for clams in the mud.
Hundreds of sensitive whiskers feel for clams; walruses do not dig with their tusks.
Touch through the vibrissae; the tusks are not used to dig prey.
-
Where is a baby walrus born?
Where are walrus calves usually born?
Where are most walrus calves born, which is one reason sea ice matters so much?
- On floating ice
- In a tree
- In a desert
Show the answer
On floating ice
Baby walruses are born on the ice.
Calves are born on floating ice floes in late spring.
Ice is the platform for calving and resting and gives access to feeding grounds.
-
Do walruses like to be alone?
How do walruses rest?
How do walruses usually rest at a land haulout?
- No, they rest in big groups
- Yes, always alone
- They sleep in trees
Show the answer
No, they rest in big groups
Walruses love to rest close together.
They rest in big groups, sometimes tens of thousands on one beach.
In dense herds that can number in the tens of thousands; when a crowded herd is disturbed, stampedes can crush calves and yearlings.
Places where you might see it
-
Watch
Country
Russia
Russia is the largest country in the world. It stretches across eastern Europe and all of northern Asia, through 11 time zones, from the Baltic Sea to the Pacific Ocean. It has frozen tundra, huge forests, Lake Baikal and the big cities of Moscow and Saint Petersburg.
-
Watch
Natural wonder
Svalbard
Svalbard is a group of Arctic islands, part of Norway, far north of the Arctic Circle. Glaciers and snowfields cover nearly 60 percent of the land. Polar bears hunt seals on the sea ice, walruses rest on the beaches, and inside a mountain on Spitsbergen the world keeps a frozen store of seeds.
Experiments to try
Explore next
-
Watch
3D
Animal
Harbor seal
The harbor seal lives along the northern coasts of North America, Europe and Asia, and it is one of the most common marine mammals on the east and west coasts of the United States. It has spotted fur, a dog-like face and no ear flaps, and it wriggles like a caterpillar on land. Its pups can swim within minutes of being born.
-
Watch
Animal
California sea lion
The California sea lion is an 'eared seal' of the west coast of North America. It is clever, playful and very noisy, with a bark like a dog's. Unlike true seals, it has ear flaps and can turn its back flippers forward to walk on land. Its numbers have grown a lot since it was protected.
-
Watch
Animal
Beluga whale
The beluga whale is a small white whale of the Arctic. It has no fin on its back, a soft, round forehead it can change shape, and a neck that bends, and it makes so many whistles, chirps and clicks that sailors called it the canary of the sea.
-
Watch
Animal
Polar bear
The polar bear is a huge bear that lives on the frozen sea of the Arctic. Thick fur and a layer of fat keep it warm, its amazing nose finds seals under the snow, and it can swim for many hours. It needs sea ice to hunt, so a warming Arctic is a big problem for it.
-
Watch
3D
Animal
Narwhal
The narwhal is a toothed whale of the icy Arctic Ocean. Most males have a long, spiral tusk that is really a tooth growing forward out of the front of the jaw, and it can be up to about 3 meters long. Narwhals dive deep under the sea ice to catch fish, squid and shrimp.
-
Watch
Country
Russia
Russia is the largest country in the world. It stretches across eastern Europe and all of northern Asia, through 11 time zones, from the Baltic Sea to the Pacific Ocean. It has frozen tundra, huge forests, Lake Baikal and the big cities of Moscow and Saint Petersburg.
- Watch Try it What If? Lab What if all the sea ice melted? Sea ice floats, so it is already pushing aside about as much water as it will make when it melts, like an ice cube in a glass. In our model, melting all the Arctic's springtime sea ice raises the sea by only about 2 millimeters. The same ice melting on land would raise it about 7 centimeters.
-
Watch
Natural wonder
Svalbard
Svalbard is a group of Arctic islands, part of Norway, far north of the Arctic Circle. Glaciers and snowfields cover nearly 60 percent of the land. Polar bears hunt seals on the sea ice, walruses rest on the beaches, and inside a mountain on Spitsbergen the world keeps a frozen store of seeds.
For parents & teachers
What children will learn
- Describe how a walrus uses its whiskers, tongue and tusks.
- Explain why walruses depend on shallow seas and sea ice.
- Describe walrus family life and their long mother-calf bond.
- Explain how shrinking sea ice affects walruses.
Recommended ages: 3 to 17 · About 15 minutes
Talk about it
- Why might whiskers work better than eyes for finding food on a muddy sea floor?
- What could happen to walruses if summer sea ice keeps shrinking?
- Why do you think walruses rest so close together?
Try at home or in class
- Feel-and-find: hide a few dry pasta shells in a bowl of uncooked rice, close your eyes and find them using only your fingertips, like walrus whiskers.
- Suction test: put a straw in water, cover the top with a finger and lift. Talk about how a walrus uses suction to eat.
Key vocabulary: tusk, whiskers, haulout, pinniped, sea ice, vulnerable
Where these facts come from
- The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species , International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN terms of use (no redistribution of Red List data or range maps))
- GBIF Backbone Taxonomy and GBIF Occurrence Search , Global Biodiversity Information Facility (CC0 1.0 (backbone); occurrence counts are facts derived from records under CC0, CC BY and CC BY-NC)
- Walrus , Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Pacific walrus species profile , Alaska Department of Fish and Game
- Atlantic walrus , North Atlantic Marine Mammal Commission (NAMMCO)
- Wikidata , Wikimedia Foundation (CC0 1.0)
- Wikimedia Commons , Wikimedia Foundation (Per file: Public domain, CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA only (credited on each page))
Checked, not yet human-reviewed. Last updated October 27, 2026. Spotted a mistake? Tell us.