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Walrus

Ethnography Biology Cultures Nutrients

Walrus has been reported to be an important food source to many cultures including Dene, Inuvialuit, Inuit (including Central/Baffin Island Inuit, and those from Keewatin, Clyde, Arctic Bay, Iglulik, Qikiqtarjuaq - formerly Broughton Island, Hudson Bay, Foxe Basin, Ungava Bay, Baffinland, Southampton Island, Cape Belcher, Labrador, Greenland including Littleton Island), Cree (including those from Eastern James Bay, Fort George), Micmac (Mi'kmaq) of Richibucto, Inupiat (including those from Wainwright, Point Hope, Point Lay, Kotzebue Sound, Bering Strait), Yupik (including those from Kasigluk, Nunapitchuk, Nunivak, St. Lawrence Island, Bering Strait), Aleut (especially those from Unimak Island), Coast Lapps, Chukchi and Koryak [1-71]. Inuvialuit of Herschel Island, Aleut, Inupiat of Point Barrow, Yupik of St. Lawrence Island and Nunivak Island, Chukchi and Koryak [39, 64, 72, 73] also consumed walrus. Bering Sea cultures [15] are also reported to have consumed walrus. Walrus was also important for central parts of western Greenland (the districts of Suckertoppen, Holsteinsborg and Egedesminde, Ipernivik), Thule and Caribou Inuit [39].

Hunting

Cultures of the North Alaskan Coast are reported to have hunted walruses from late June to August [74]. Northwestern Alaska (Inupiat) and Bering Strait cultures (including St. Lawrence Island Yupik) [57, 60], Inuvialuit (including Avvagmiut) [63] and Micmac [58, 59] hunted walrus in spring and/or summer, when herds were migrating north [64]. Walrus was a part of the Baffinland Inuit diet in spring, late fall and winter [62]; Hudson Bay Inuit (including those of Southampton Island) hunted spring, summer and/or fall [14]. Hopedale Inuit are reported to have consumed the sea mammal in February [61]. Inuit, including Aivilingmiut (Chesterfield Inlet to Wager Bay) and Iglulingmiut (northern Foxe Basin), are reported to have consumed walrus harvested in July through October, and to a lesser extent January to May [40]. Northern Hudson Bay Iglulik hunted walrus mostly in spring [75].

The simple harpoon is reported to have been used by Inuvialuit, Inuit (including those of Iglulik, Baffinland, Labrador and Littleton Island) [5, 13, 30, 41, 44], Micmac [58, 59], Wainwright Inupiat [6], Iglulik [75], Siberian cultures [20], and other cultures [15]. Bering Sea cultures used a very heavy harpoon for walrus hunting [15].Some, including Inuit [1], Inupiat [6, 57] and Siberian cultures [20], are reported to have attached an inflated sealskin float to the line of the harpoon. Central Inuit used an inflated animal skin, and an anchor made of wood and hide [9]. Northwest Alaska Inupiat used walrus ivory for trapping net mesh measurements and net shifters [65]. Other hunting tools used were: an inflated bladder with an anchor made of wood and hide [3], multiple-pronged bird darts and barbed bladder darts [53], a flapper made of whalebone that sounded like a killer whale (Orca), which scared the walrus into beaching itself [66]. The harpoon was replaced by the rifle when it was introduced to cultures including Inupiat [6, 57] and those in Siberia [20, 66]. The Chukchi, Koryak, Nentsy and Coast Lapps are reported to have used a rifle to hunt walrus, and sometimes a harpoon [39].

Preparation

Inupiat Wainwright men butchered the walrus. Flippers, heart and kidney were always saved [6], and when possible, limbs and ribs, as well. Athapaskan cultures are reported to have butchered directly on the ice after the hunt [49]. Among Inuit, the hunter who killed the walrus often had first choice of meat, but all who were present during a butchering were entitled to a portion. Walrus meat is reported to have been boiled by Inuit [11] and consumed raw, frozen, fermented or aged (“kopalchen”) by Coastal Chukotka [47]. Stomach contents of Arctic walrus were considered a delicacy to Iglulik, especially when bivalve feet were found [75].

Uses other than food

The ivory is reported to have been used to make hunting tools and weapons by Inuvialuit, Inuit (including those of Iglulik, Baffinland, Labrador) [13, 44], Northwest Alaska Inupiat [57], Yupik (including those of St. Lawrence Island) [64], Richibucto Micmac [52] and others [50]. Hudson Bay and Baffinland Inuit brought a tusk on hunting trips to scrape dust off stone lamp wicks [10]. Richibucto Micmac used ivory to make game dice and for trade with Penobscot in Maine [52]. Bering Sea cultures used walrus bones and ivory to make tools; the skin to make clothing, boat coverings, harpoon floats, and thongs; the sinews for sewing thread; and the blubber for lamps [15]. The Aleut used the hide to make containers, as well as a life support float for kayak hunters [17]. Siberian cultures used walrus hide to cover boats and canoes, as well as for rooftops of homes. They also used the intestines to make waterproof clothing, and the tusks for small dogsleds [66]. St. Lawrence Island Yupik used the intestines to make waterproof coats, the hide for canoe and house covers, and the blubber for heat and light [64]. Bering Strait cultures used the hide to cover canoes; those from Wales and Nome used it to make cone-shaped tents; King Islanders used translucent hide to build elevated summer homes on stilts [60].

Beliefs and taboos

Hudson Bay and Baffin Island Inuit did not eat walrus and caribou on the same day, except after undressing entirely, or dressing only in caribou skin clothing that had never been worn while hunting walrus. Hunting clothes and tools were never mixed, hide preparations were done only during the respective animal’s hunting season, and new tents were built for each hunting season. In addition, walrus hunting boots were never used to hunt salmon, and those two foods were never eaten on the same day. As well, a person had to change his clothing after eating or hunting walrus. St. Lawrence Island Yupik could not begin walrus hunting until all caribou clothing had been completed, and once the hunt had commenced, all reindeer/caribou skin work was required to stop. In addition, a hunter who killed a walrus was required to stay at home for a full day of no work [10, 29].

Among Siberian cultures, the head of the first killed walrus was always placed on top of a cliff to ensure a bountiful hunt the following season. Advice on how the next hunt should proceed, as well as who should lead the hunt, was sought from this animal [66]. Custom dictated that West Greenlanders give the first walrus of the season, or the first walrus killed by a boy, to the community to guarantee successful future hunting [46].

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The walrus (Odobenus rosmarus) is the only member of its family and is most closely related to other pinnipeds, like seals and sea lions. Walruses are found in the Arctic where there is shallow water foraging areas and thick enough ice to support their heavy weights. In North America, walruses are divided in two subspecies: the Pacific walrus (O. r. divergens) distributed around Alaska from the Beaufort Sea to the Gulf of Alaska and the Atlantic walrus (O. r. rosmarus) distributed in the western Atlantic Arctic occurring from the eastern Canadian Arctic to Maritime Provinces. Walruses migrate with ice, moving north in spring and south in autumn. The species latin name means “tooth walking sea horse” and the French common name is morse.

Walruses are the second largest pinnipeds, typically weighing 1043 kg, but males are twice the size of females and can weigh up to 1,500 kg and be over 3 m long. Their most distinguishable characteristic is their enlarged and elongated upper canines forming huge tusks in both sexes, but that are longer and thicker in males. Tusks can be used as sexual displays and as weapons in fights between walruses or against predators, but also to help in hauling out, maintaining breathing holes, and holding their head out of the water by resting on the ice edge. Walruses are large and bulky and have a flat head, a wide muzzle with many large whiskers, small eyes, no external ear, and a tough and thick gray to yellowish-reddish brown skin with many cracks and folds underlined by fat blubber up to 10 cm thick. Male walruses have thicker and tougher neck skin than females to protect them from tusk injuries from other males. Walrus fur is very short and coarse with some furless areas and undergoes summer molt, when walruses haul out on land (sand, cobble, or rock beaches), on pack ice, or on ice floes close to their feeding areas.

For most of the year, sexes and age classes live separately, but they congregate in large numbers in winter and summer. During the winter breeding season, males will advertise and try to defend female haul out sites to reproduce with as many females possible. Female walruses first breed at 9 years old, breed every three years, have a gestation period of 15 months (including 4-5 months of delayed implantation), and give birth in spring on ice floes drifting north to a single calf, weighing around 60 kg with slate gray coat, that will be weaned between their second and third year. Walruses are long-lived and can reach up to 40 years old. Unlike most other pinnipeds that feed on fish and crustaceans, walruses feed mainly on mollusks on the ocean floor. They swim slower (10km/hr) and make shallower dive than most other pinnipeds. Major predators include polar bears and killer whales.

Walruses have been intensively exploited in the last centuries by whalers and sealers for their ivory, oil, and hide and have not yet fully recovered. The Pacific walrus population is estimated at around 200,000, while the western Atlantic walrus population is estimated at around 10,000 animals and is listed as of special concern by COSEWIC.

Reference

Kastelein RA: Walrus. In: Encyclopedia of marine mammals. edn. Edited by Perrin WF, Wursig B, Thewissen JGM. San Diego: Academic Press; 2002: 1294-1300.

 
Images provided below were obtained from the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History - North American Mammals. Available from http://www.mnh.si.edu/mna/.
Walrus - Pacific male (left) and female (right) on ice floe; Atlantic male (smaller, smoother skin) in water (far right); males fighting (upper left)
Credit: painting by Sandra Doyle/Wildlife Art Ltd. from Kays and Wilson's Mammals of North America, © Princeton University Press (2002)
Credit: IUCN 2009. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2009.1. IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature), http://www.iucnredlist.org

 
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