Walruses are famous marine mammals that are found throughout the Northern Hemisphere in the Pacific, Atlantic, and Arctic Oceans. They are known as extremely large, and therefore need to consume lots of food. What kind of food do they consume and what do they eat?
Walruses have specialized skills in hunting creatures that reside within or within the substrate. They typically eat a variety of invertebrates. But, if their favorite prey isn’t readily available, they may consume larger animals, including mammals!
Read on to find details about the diets of Walruses and the strategies they employ to find and consume their prey.
What do Walruses hardly ever eat?
Certain animals and other creatures aren’t very friendly to walruses. They aren’t often eaten by them. Walruses consume jellyfish and small squids from time times. Walruses also feed on narwhals but only if they’re trapped in the ice.
What is the food that Walruses rarely eat?
Certain animals and animals aren’t very friendly to walruses and they aren’t often eaten by them. Walruses consume jellyfish and tiny squids from time times. They also eat narwhals but only if they’re trapped in frozen.
What do Walruses not eat?
Certain animals are so dangerous that walruses can’t prey on and consume them. They can’t even devour polar bears. Polar bears are most likely their largest adversaries. Polar bears primarily feed on walruses. They’re big, but Polar bears are more robust with sharp teeth.
Walrus do not eat human beings however there have been instances where they have attacked people and killed them. They don’t interact with sharks. However, it has been proven that big white sharks could kill and eat Walruses.
They don’t consume their meals in the same way, and they rarely consume clamshells. Sometimes, they even crush the clamshells. Walruses are not able to eat arctic Hares due to their desire to devour different animals particularly marine creatures.
Walruses aren’t allowed to eat dolphins sea lions, dolphins, turtles, whales, and sea lions. They also don’t consume krill, however, Arctic codes consume them and walruses consume the arctic codes.
Lifespan of Walrus
Walruses live long They can live up to 40 years. They’re comparatively not prolific in reproduction and have an average gestation time of 15 months. Walrus mothers feed their calves for approximately two years. After mating, pregnancy is likely to be delayed by 4 or five months. This lets the mother recuperate from her birth and pregnancy, as well as ensures that her baby will be born at a time when the food supply is abundant.
The most frequent causes of death in males of adulthood are injuries resulting due to fighting. It is also very normal for calves to be crushed by adults, particularly in an event of a stampede. Walruses are extremely sensitive and can be seen rushing to the water when they feel perturbed.
Walruses also are vulnerable to parasites, viruses (both external and internal), and also infections on their skin due to microbes.
Do you know that whales live the majority of their time in the water? This is mostly to hunt in search of food. But, once they go away in the evening to relax, they may rest for as long as 19 hours.
What do Walruses eat?
It is normal to assume that Walrus are fish eaters, like Seals or Sea Lions, however, Walrus consume marine invertebrates as well as crustaceans,
Adults can consume 300-6000 clams during one feeding session! In general, walruses eat every day twice during the winter months. However, during summer, they are spending all day searching for food.
Sometimes, when food sources are limited, they can take food from carcasses of other seals and Walruses. They can even hunt smaller fish.
Because of the murky waters and the low visibility, walruses utilize their snouts that are flat to break up the sediment. They also use their whiskers, called vibrissae, to look for predators on the sea floor. They also utilize the front of their flippers to extract food items from sediment. Researchers have also witnessed Walruses drinking small mouthfuls of water before spraying them onto the sea’s bottom to move sediment during their food search.
Nursing mothers are accompanied by their calves in their hunts. A calf will take a bath at any time they have to. After 6 months, calves begin to eat solid foods, however, they will still nurse from their mothers until they turn 2 years older.
How do Walruses Identify Their Food?
Walruses usually hunt their prey in shallow waters that are between 10-50m (33-164 feet). This is because their prey is plentiful in these waters. They are also able to catch their meals in the deeper water of 80-100 meters when needed4.
The whiskers that walruses wear on their upper lips to aid in locating their prey. The reason for this is that the water that walruses hunt in is muddy and lacks visibility. The whiskers of walrus are also known as vibrissae5. They are connected to muscles and are extremely sensitive.
Walruses also browse on top of sea ice. The ice blocks their ability to dive. If walruses cannot dive, they will not hunt to find the mollusks. They will use the sea ice as a way to hunt other organisms like those mentioned previously.
What are the features of Walruses to help them eat?
Walruses possess a variety of traits that have evolved to allow them to flourish and survive in their surroundings. They reside in icy, cold areas close to the ocean. The traits they’ve developed to survive are required for foraging and food.
They have long whiskers known as vibrissae, which cover their upper lip. The vibrissae resemble an enormous mustache, which gives the walrus a comical look. But, these hairs aid walruses in finding food. They swim on the bottom of the ocean, rubbing their whiskers with their feet and identifying prey using their vibrissae.
After they have found food sources, they employ their long upper lip to grab at clams with slippery skins. The majority of their prey is shelled animals. Luckily, they can make use of their strong upper lip to push animals out of their shells, or inject liquid into their shells with high pressure to force the invertebrate away.
How Much Does a Walrus eat?
Walruses can fill their stomachs every day twice. Within a single day, an adult walrus eats approximately 3-6% of its weight.
To eat this amount of food the walrus will consume up to 60 clams in a single dive. divers usually last from five to 20 minutes! This means that there are 3000 to 6,000 clams consumed by adult walrus during a single feeding season.
If the walrus is pregnant it consumes more food – around between 30 and 40. The walrus also consume more food during the summer months as opposed to the winter or spring. In the summer the walruses are most of the day hunting for food12.
Eight last facts about walruses:
Walruses spend around two-thirds of their lives in water.
Underwater, walrus heart rates slow to ensure that they don’t become cold.
Odobenus Rosmarus, also known as the walrus’ binomial name, translates to “tooth-walking sea horse.
A walrus bellow is heard for up to 1.5 miles (.7 miles) from the distance.
The whale is a pinniped which translates to “feather footed,” along with other seals in the family.
Female walruses are known to leave the group to have babies. It is unclear what the reason is, however it is believed that it could be to move away from the common scent of walruses that attract predators or maybe to protect young calves away from getting crushed.