Walruses, as the name suggests, are elephants of the sea. They are large animals with thick, wrinkled skin, sparse, stiff hair, small eyes, and poor eyesight. They are 3-4 meters long, weigh around 1300 kilograms, and have two long tusks. Unlike land elephants with their large heads, long trunks, and strong limbs, walruses have limbs that have atrophied due to adaptation to aquatic life. They cannot walk on land like elephants, but rely on the forward bending of their hind flippers and the action of their tusks digging into the ice to crawl forward. Walruses mainly live in the Arctic Ocean and can be considered endemic to the Arctic, but they can make short-distance journeys. Therefore, they can be found in both the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans.
Walruses are gregarious and lazy, spending most of their limited lifespan (reportedly 45 years) sleeping. Therefore, it's common to see hundreds or even thousands of walruses peacefully sleeping on the ice or coast. Their long experience in the struggle for survival has made them constantly vigilant. In this case, one walrus acts as a sentinel. Upon detecting danger, the sentinel will loudly wake its sleeping companions or use its long tusks to rouse them, passing the signal down the chain of command. Sometimes, for even more thorough defense, they will secretly deploy a second sentinel in the water.
walrus herd
Walruses may appear clumsy, but they are actually quite agile. When they dive to the seabed to forage, they use their enormous tusks to rummage through the mud and sand. At the same time, their sensitive lips and tentacles detect and identify food. Once they find food, they use their teeth to break open the shells of their favorite clams, snails, and other food, and then eat the flesh.
Although walruses are enormous, they are terrified of polar whales and polar bears. Polar bears can crush their skulls with their incredibly powerful paws and then enjoy a delicious meal. When walruses encounter killer whales in the water, a fierce battle ensues, with the walruses adopting a collective defensive strategy. However, the cunning killer whales, always one step ahead, employ a strategy of dividing and conquering the predator.
Walruses have high economic value.
