Walruses are incredibly adapted to their harsh Arctic environments, with their most iconic feature—their massive tusks—playing a surprisingly versatile role. These tusks are actually continuously growing canine teeth found in both males and females, used not just for establishing social dominance and defending against predators, but also as sturdy “ice hooks” to haul their heavy, blubber-insulated bodies out of the freezing water. Beneath their tusks lies another crucial survival tool: a dense mustache of hundreds of stiff, highly sensitive whiskers called vibrissae. Because walruses often forage in dark, murky waters near the ocean floor, they rely almost entirely on these tactile whiskers to feel around and root out their favorite meals of clams, snails, and crabs hiding in the sediment.
Beyond their striking appearance, these animals are fiercely social marine mammals that thrive in massive, noisy colonies. During the summer and fall, it is common to find tens of thousands of walruses tightly packed together on rocky beaches or floating ice floes, communicating through an impressive repertoire of grunts, roars, and underwater bell-like knocks. However, this heavy reliance on sea ice as a platform for resting, breeding, and nursing their calves makes them highly vulnerable to a warming climate. As Arctic ice continues to diminish, these gregarious giants are increasingly forced onto crowded shorelines, which can lead to dangerous stampedes and forces them to exhaust more energy traveling farther distances to reach their shallow-water feeding grounds.