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Today on Animal Fact Files we’re talking about walruses. Don’t forget to join our herd be subscribing to the channel! Walruses are some of the largest living pinnipeds on earth, though they’re beat out by elephant seals. There is only one living species of walrus which is often split into two or three sub-species depending on who you ask.

If you thought we would be getting a rare Antarctica video, you would be mistaken, as all walruses - just like all polar bears - live in the Arctic. In fact, polar bears are some of the only predators to walruses with orcas and humans also taking these blubbery giants. Blubbery is an apt word to describe a walrus because they can have almost ten inch (25 centimeter) thick blubber. Walrus blubber is important not only for keeping them insulated in their freezing home but also for providing them energy if they can’t find food. Considering walruses average about a ton (900 kilograms) in weight and almost ten feet (3 meters) in length, they need to eat quite a bit of food in order to stay nice and chonky, though what they eat is typically very small.

Now, I dunno about you, but as a kid that scene from Disney’s Alice in Wonderland with the walrus and the oysters - yeah it scarred me. But, it holds some truth. The main diet of walruses includes bivalve molluscs like oysters, though walruses definitely have a preference for clams. They’ll also eat sea slugs, sea cucumbers, sea worms, sea birds, and seals, but bivalves are their specialty. Walruses will dive to the ocean’s floor and dig up clams.

Walruses have pretty bad eyesight so they actually depend on their whiskers to help them find food. Walrus whiskers are basically face fingers. Walruses don’t, however, use their tusks to locate food. Walrus tusks are actually just large canine teeth that grow continuously throughout a walrus’s life. Both male and female walruses have tusks, and tusks that break will grow back out as long as the roots haven’t been damaged. Walruses use their tusks to help them climb onto ice, to making breathing holes in the ice, and, in the case of males, to fight each other over females.

Walrus males have multiple partners. During the breeding season, which typically lasts from January to April, walrus males will engage in combat using their tusks to establish dominance and make loud calls to woo girls. Sort of like this. Walruses usually mate in water, and the males won’t take part in raising their children. Mama walruses gestate for about fifteen months, and the babies are born knowing how to swim. It’ll take about three years before they can fend for themselves and then another handful of years before they’re ready to have babies of their own. They may live to be upwards of forty years old if they can avoid predation and find enough food!

Though they might be bulky, walruses actually do move around quite a bit and will even migrate to more optimal locations depending on the season. Though they’re populations are not currently listed as threatened, in the past their numbers have severely been depleted, so they’re protected almost everywhere they're found.

For more facts on walruses, check out the links in the description. Give a thumbs up if you learned something new today, and thank you for watching Animal Fact Files.