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Provisions (Food)
Walruses mostly eat species stay on the bottom of the sea. Some are: Mollusks, salt worms, crabs, shrimp, octopus and other crustaceans. They eat up to 45 kilograms a day. The walrus drags its tusks like sled runners along the bottom of the sea, bringing out buried prey with its snout and facial bristles. However, walrus also may eat other pinnipeds such as spotted, ringed, and bearded seals.
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The Tusk
The walruses tusk is also used for protection or a sign on social level or rank. Sometimes when a walrus wants to rest while it is still in the water, the walrus will hook its tusks over the edge of an ice floe. Its tusks may also be used to break an ice floe to keep breathing holes open or to rescue calves that have been stuck in the ice. The longest walrus tusk that was ever recorded was 37 inches long and 11 inches in diameter. The walruses tusks are modified canine teeth that continue to grow down from the upper jaw throughout the walruses life. One fifth of the tusk's length is hidden in the walruses jaw.
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Evolution Of Pinnipeds
Some people think that modern Pinnipeds are descendants of two stocks with separate origins. Both branch from the carnivore as lately as 25 million years ago. The walruses have a bear-like like ancestor and seals have an otter-like ancestor. The first phocid in the early Miocene, in central France, their radiation has taken them from the Arctic, through mild marine habitats, to the tropics. There is also a leftover population in inland freshwater such as Lake Baikal Seal. Walruses and eared seals evolved a little bit earlier in the late Oligocene. However, the double starting point of the Pinnipeds is accepted and one fossil, Enaliarctos, shows symbols or signs of fall from bears and they both have seal-like (thrusting kind flippers) and eared-seal (strokes of fore flippers) characteristics.
When walruses first appeared, they looked like modern sea lions. They also appeared at the same time as the fur seals. Walruses were the most rich and assorted Pinnipeds in the Pacific from 5 to 10 Mya. At least five genera of walruses migrated through the Central American Seaway, which is an area close to where Panama is today, to the Atlantic Ocean and crossed to Europe in the early Pliocene at the end of the Miocene. The walruses progenitors then became extinct in the Pacific Ocean, which now has re-populated when descendants of the Atlantic lineages traveled back by the use of the Arctic Ocean. In the beginning, walruses ate fish, however, some walruses started to eat mollusks as does the only remaining species, walrus.
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Eskimos
For thousands of years, Eskimos and other Native people of the north watched the walrus. It was important to Eskimos, etc., culture to watch the walrus. Native people got food and fuel from the walrus as well as raw materials for making tools, shelter, boats, sleds, and clothing. For centuries, Russians, Americans, and others hunted the walrus for its valuable ivory tusks and oil.
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