Walrus

tony
November 9, 2025
Arctic / mammals / travel

Our search for Polar bear had taken us up the western side of Svalbard, well north into the Arctic pack ice and then down the eastern side of Svalbard. We had episodically encountered lone walrus foraging for benthic bivalves at sea but they were difficult subjects to photograph well in the water. Retracing our route we stopped and landed at Smeerenburg, a historical whaling site (the name meaning literally blubber town) on Amsterdam island, north west of Svalbard. This was a resting site for a group of walrus (Odobenus rosmarus) and gave another opportunity to photograph them at rest on land and a few arriving and hauling out from the sea. I wrote about this Smeerenburg landing and the birds photographed there in previous posts.

Photo of a huddle of walrus at Smeerenburg — A huddle of walrus at Smeerenburg. Mountains of Spitsbergen in the background

As I mentioned in my post on walrus we had photographed in Longyearbyen, resting walrus are not very photogenic. It takes a lot of patience to wait for something interesting to happen. While waiting I tried to explore some different view points of the group.

Exploring options on a group of resting walrus. Low angle with some leading lines and foreground colour

Mostly they were happy to rest in the sun but would occasionally have a minor disagreement on position which gave brief instances of activity.

Episodically another walrus would arrive and haul out onto the beach and then negotiate a position to rest. Hauling their huge bodies out onto the soft beach with crashing waves looked incredibly difficult and took some time before success.

Walrus are the second largest pinniped, exceeded in size only by Elephants seals. Their large tusks and whiskers are specific to them and responsible for their unique appearance.

Walrus are the only surviving member of the family Odobenidae, which along with Phocidae (true or earless seals which include the Bearded seals and Ringed seals we had seen Polar bear hunting)) and Otariidae (eared seals which include our NZ fur seals and NZ sea lions) make up the suborder Pinnipedia (flipper feet)

Walrus resting from the effort of hauling out prior to joining the huddle

Walrus tusks are elongated canines and generally longer and thicker in males where they can reach up to 1m. These are used for fighting and to assist hauling out onto ice

Due to their large size they are only preyed on by Orca and Polar bear but are not a common prey species compared to smaller more easily dominated species.