Walrus

📖 1. Overview

It is a giant among Arctic pinnipeds, weighing 1.5 tonnes and bearing a pair of massive tusks up to 1 m long. Its scientific name 'Odobenus' means 'tooth-walker.'

🌐 Wikipedia Summary Extract

The walrus is a large pinniped marine mammal with discontinuous distribution about the North Pole in the Arctic Ocean and subarctic seas of the Northern Hemisphere. It is the only extant species in the family Odobenidae and genus Odobenus. This species is subdivided into two subspecies: the Atlantic walrus, which lives in the Atlantic Ocean, and the Pacific walrus, which lives in the Pacific Ocean.

🦴 2. Anatomy & Morphology

It drives its long tusks into the ice to haul its heavy body onto drift ice, and uses up to 700 sensitive whiskers (vibrissae) around its mouth to locate clams in dark seafloor mud before sucking out the soft meat like a vacuum cleaner.

🔍 3. Ecology & Behavior

Thanks to its 15 cm layer of blubber and tough 4 cm-thick skin, even polar bears cannot easily attack an adult walrus.

🇰🇷 4. Connection to Korea

It is a representative species of adaptive evolution among Arctic marine mammals.