Walruses don't eat with their teeth, they eat with their butts

If you have ever visited Hall 40 of the British Museum, your eyes will inevitably be drawn to a set of chess pieces: compared with many of the more prestigious collections next to them, these 82 pieces look so inconspicuous .

But if you lean over and take a closer look, you will understand why the British regard it as one of the most important national treasures: the small chess pieces are not only well-preserved and exquisitely crafted, but also have unforgettable shapes - the queen, frowning and thinking hard; the king, sitting upright and glaring; the soldiers, with eyes wide open, biting the shield with their teeth. These chess pieces walking between the red and white grids are so delicate and interesting.

"Uig Chessmen" in the British Museum | Jack1956 / Wikipedia

According to research by academics, this set of "Uig chess pieces" unearthed on the Isle of Lewis in Scotland was probably made by Viking craftsmen in Trondheim, Norway. This is somewhat unexpected, after all, it is hard for us to imagine that the Vikings, who have always been shown as strong and fierce, actually have such ingenuity and cuteness .

The two pairs of Uig chess pieces sitting on chairs are the king and queen; the one holding the heavy sword and biting the shield is the rook | Andrew Dunn & Nachosan / Wikipedia

However, if we analyze the source of the chess pieces, this "cute" quality is no longer surprising. The crystal clear color and fine and compact texture tell us that this set of chess pieces is made from the tusks of the "cute" walrus (Odobenus rosmarus) in the ocean!

Walrus tusks are similar in texture to ivory and were once used as a substitute for ivory. In the early Middle Ages, Europeans were blocked from obtaining Asian and African ivory trade routes, and it was the walrus tusks brought in by the Vikings that met the needs of European royal families. In faraway China, walrus tusks, known as "qiu horns," were also carefully dyed emerald green and used to make beads.

Pacific walrus | Wikipedia

What are the uses of long teeth?

The tusks may look impressive, but their actual use is very limited. For walruses, which can weigh up to 2 tons, their size is their best weapon against predators. Even polar bears, the largest carnivores on land, often choose to leave in dismay when faced with a "mountain of meat" that is much larger than themselves.

In fact, except for fighting for mates during the mating season or competing for a resting place on the ice or shoals, walruses rarely use their tusks as weapons . Even in the fight between males, the role of tusks is very limited - walruses have thick and tough skin, and the teeth of old walruses that are more than one meter long are easily broken.

Iconic tusks | Joel Garlich-Miller / Wikipedia

Both male and female walruses have tusks, so besides being used by male walruses in combat, the tusks must have had some practical function. People have found that when climbing onto ice floes or shoals, the walruses’ huge size becomes a burden, and the tusks can sometimes act like ice picks .

“Magic tool for eating clams”, do you have it?

This way of digging once inspired people to speculate: When walruses dive to the seabed to find food, can their tusks be used as a tool for foraging? This speculation is not without basis. Through dissection and research on stomach contents, people have long known about walruses' unique food preferences - although walruses have a wide range of diets, their favorite bite is a variety of bivalve clams . Clams living under the mud on the seabed seem to have some connection with walruses' tusks.

Clams | Marlith / Wikipedia

However, when researchers followed the walruses into the water and witnessed their dining scenes with their own eyes, this assumption was refuted: the long teeth are of almost no use in the process of digging for clams .

In fact, walruses choose three different ways to forage according to their preferences: some dig their mouths into the seabed like pigs; some use their mouths to blow away the mud; and the more common method is to use the left and right front flippers to fan the sea water and break up the mud . Interestingly, most walruses are used to using the right flipper. Years of hard work have made the length of their right shoulder blade, humerus and ulna significantly longer than the left side.

Arch, arch, arch | BMCseriesJournals / youtube

Compared to tusks, walruses' whiskers are more worthy of the title of "clam digging artifact" . 400 to 700 translucent whiskers are connected to the sensitive subcutaneous nerves on the face, which can instantly sense any slight movement of clams under the mud. Once the location of the clam is determined, the walrus can wave its huge "unicorn right arm" to dig it out; then, they use their seemingly clumsy lips to pick up the clam and suck the clam meat. After the walrus finishes eating, the two shells are even completely connected.

With this efficient and agile way of eating, an adult walrus can eat 2,000 clams in just one day . Frequent use causes the whiskers to be constantly rubbed and broken by mud and sand, so the whiskers of wild walruses are often much shorter than those of their captive counterparts.

A walrus with a long beard | Megapixie / Wikipedia

It is a sacred object, but also a dish

For the Yupik people living in the polar regions, walruses are not only spiritual creatures, but also extremely important resources in life : their thick leather can be used to sew tents, their fat can be burned for warmth, and although walrus meat has a sour taste, its tongue is a rare delicacy. For thousands of years, the Yupik people have followed ancient traditions, hunting and killing in moderation and making full use of the gifts of nature.

Whether it's the Lamalera who hunt sperm whales, the Inuit who round up seals, or the Yupik who hunt walruses, these indigenous peoples with a hunting tradition do not have a devastating impact on wildlife resources - their population is limited, and the scale of hunting will never exceed what they need.

Walrus being hunted | Beverly Bennett Dobbs / Wikipedia

Fishing out the pond is shocking

However, the commercial fishing that followed was fundamentally different from this . Hunters who were only pursuing greater wealth adopted a short-sighted strategy of exhausting all resources. Especially with the development of navigation technology, hunting gradually expanded to the world, and the harsh polar environment was not spared. Since the 18th century, thousands of ships have entered the frozen north. In just a few decades, the whaling industry for oil and fat and the fur trade for leather have become the first two global industries to emerge .

Unfortunately, walruses meet the needs of both trades - their thick fat is exactly what the whaling industry needs, their tight leather is enough to please fur hunters, and their huge size makes them more efficient in hunting. In addition, their tusks are an expensive bonus. For a time, from Greenland to Svalbard, from Siberia to Alaska, oil refineries were working day and night, and the beaches were covered with drying furs.

Painting of a walrus hunt | Jan Luyken / Wikipedia

According to statistics, the walrus population in Svalbard, Norway, once reached a peak of more than 30,000, but since commercial hunting began in the area in 1820, the population size has declined at an alarming rate .

By 1952, there were only 100 male walruses left in Svalbard, while most females hid in breeding areas further north. Despite strict protection policies, the number of walruses in Svalbard has only slowly climbed to around 3,900 today. On many local beaches, there are many more walrus skeletons that were carelessly discarded by hunters more than a hundred years ago .

Walrus mother and child | Wikipedia

The road ahead is uncertain and life is difficult for elephants

Today, commercial hunting of walruses has been completely banned, but the future of the giant beasts is still full of dangers.

The polar ice is shrinking rapidly due to climate warming. The ice floes that used to float in the shallow sea in summer are hard to find . This puts walruses in a dilemma: walruses have poor diving ability, and if they retreat to live on the ice floes in deep waters, they will face the dilemma of being unable to find food; but the shallow sea mudflats are by no means an ideal delivery room for females during the breeding season - although polar bears cannot prey on adult walruses, they pose a major threat to the survival of their cubs.

Walrus herd | Timinilya / Wikipedia

Moreover, as more and more walruses pile up on the beach, the risk of trampling each other increases suddenly , but the walruses can no longer control this embarrassing situation. In 2016, in Chukotka, Russia, walruses with no way out had to squeeze on the narrow beach to rest. In 2018, the same scene appeared in the Aleutian Islands (an archipelago between the Bering Sea and the North Pacific). Under the torrent of drastic changes, the huge walruses can only be carried away and drift helplessly.

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