Walrus
Odobenus rosmarus (Linnaeus, 1758)
The walrus (Odobenus rosmarus) is a marine mammal of the family Odobenidae in the order Carnivora. It falls in the giant size class by adult body mass, with a representative weight of 825 kg and values up to 846.5 kg reported.
Quick facts about the walrus
Its diet category is invertivore, its trophic level is carnivore and its activity pattern is cathemeral. The walrus is listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List, a threatened category, and has a lifespan of 40 years.
- Weight
- 825 kg – 846.5 kgsrc for Weight
- Length
- Not recorded
- Lifespan
- 40 yearssrc for Lifespan
- Diet
- Invertivoresrc for Diet
- Main food
- Not recorded
- Habitat
- marinesrc for Habitat
- Gestation
- 354 days – 457 dayssrc for Gestation
- Young per litter or clutch
- 1.18src for Young per litter or clutch
- Age at maturity
- 5.49 years – 8.97 yearssrc for Age at maturity
- Litters or clutches a year
- 0.5src for Litters or clutches a year
- Active
- Day and night (cathemeral)src for Active
- Lifestyle
- Marinesrc for Lifestyle
- Conservation status
- Vulnerable (IUCN)src for Conservation status
- Countries on record
- Not recorded
Photos of the walrus
Only freely licensed photos are shown. Each carries its creator and licence.
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Where does the walrus live?
Not recorded
What is the walrus?
The walrus (Odobenus rosmarus; plural walrus or walruses) 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 (O. r. rosmarus), which lives in the Atlantic Ocean, and the Pacific walrus (O. r. divergens), which lives in the Pacific Ocean.
Adult walrus are characterised by prominent tusks and whiskers, and considerable bulk; adult males in the Pacific can weigh more than 2,000 kilograms (4,400 pounds) and, among pinnipeds, are exceeded in size only by the two species of elephant seals. Walrus live mostly in shallow waters above the continental shelves, spending significant amounts of their lives on the sea ice looking for benthic bivalve molluscs. Walruses are relatively long-lived, social and intelligent animals, and are considered a keystone species of the Arctic marine region.
The walrus has played a prominent role in the cultures of many indigenous Arctic peoples, who have hunted it for meat, fat, skin, tusks, and bone. During the 19th century and the early 20th century, walrus were widely hunted for their blubber, walrus ivory, leather, and meat; in this period, the walrus population dropped rapidly all around the Arctic region. It has rebounded somewhat since, though the populations of Atlantic and Laptev walruses remain fragmented and at low levels compared with the time before human interference.
From the Wikipedia article “Walrus” (en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Walrus&oldid=1384694961), by Wikipedia contributors, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0). This block is kept separate from our own text.
Is the walrus endangered?
The walrus is listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List: it faces a high risk of extinction in the wild.
- LCLeast Concern
- NTNear Threatened
- VUVulnerable
- ENEndangered
- CRCritically Endangered
- EWExtinct in the Wild
- EXExtinct
Category via Wikidata (CC0). Find the full assessment on the IUCN Red List. See all Vulnerable species.
How is the walrus classified?
- kingdomAnimalia
- phylumChordata
- classMammalia
- orderCarnivora
- familyOdobenidae
- genusOdobenus
- SpeciesOdobenus rosmarus (Linnaeus, 1758)
Synonyms Odebenus rosmarus, Odobenus arcticus, Phoca rosmarus, Rosmarus arcticus
Other names and names in other languages (80)
- Sea-cowEnglish
- Sea-elephantEnglish
- Sea-horseEnglish
- Sea-oxenEnglish
- HorshwælOld English
- فظArabic
- الفظArabic
- فظ (حيوان)Arabic
- MorjlarAzerbaijani
- সিন্ধুঘোটকBangla
- མཚོ་གླང་།Tibetan
- Kole-morBreton
- ᏗᎦᎾᏙᎬ ᎠᏐᎠᏍᏙCherokee
- Mrož ledníCzech
- WalrwsWelsh
- morlo ysgithrogWelsh
- Morloi YsgithrogWelsh
- hvalrosDanish
- WalrossGerman
- ΜόρσαGreek
- Θαλάσσιος ίπποςGreek
- RosmaroEsperanto
- morsaSpanish
- MorskEstonian
- MortsaBasque
- گراز دریاییPersian
- mursuFinnish
- RoysningurFaroese
- morseFrench
- RosualtIrish
- each-maraScottish Gaelic
- eich-mharaScottish Gaelic
- WalelukaHawaiian
- ניבתןHebrew
- वालरसHindi
- MorževiCroatian
- RozmárHungarian
- ᐊᐃᕕᖅInuktitut
- AiviqInuktitut
- RostungurIcelandic
- RosmhvalurIcelandic
- trichecoItalian
- セイウチJapanese
- OdbenuLojban
- მორჟიGeorgian
- ლომვეშაპიGeorgian
- AaveqKalaallisut
- AarfitKalaallisut
- 바다코끼리Korean
- vėplysLithuanian
- valzirgsLatvian
- Aaveq [Greenlandic]mis
- വാൽറസ്Malayalam
- Далайн морьMongolian
- ОбранErzya
- Tábąąstííntsoh bideeʼ hólónígííNavajo
- kvalrossNorwegian Nynorsk
- hvalrossNorwegian
- morsPolish
- Mors arktycznyPolish
- والرسWestern Panjabi
- MorsăRomanian
- moršaNorthern Sami
- mrožSlovenian
- TrikekuAlbanian
- valrossSwedish
- Tembo-bahariSwahili
- వాల్రస్Telugu
- วอลรัสThai
- mors aygırıTurkish
- deniz aygırıTurkish
- deniz aygırı morsTurkish
- Kılıç Dişli Fok (Valrus)Turkish
- МоржUkrainian
- Канада МоржUkrainian
- Hải tượngVietnamese
- וואלראסYiddish
- 海象Chinese
- 海象屬Chinese
- IwalerosiZulu
Catalogue of LifeWikipediaiNaturalistTAXREFWikidataWoRMSIUCN Red List
Relatives of the walrus
Other species in the same family Odobenidae.
CompareWalrus vs Archaeodobenus akamatsuiWalrus vs Titanotaria orangensisWalrus vs Nanodobenus arandaiWalrus vs Osodobenus eodon
Common questions
Each answer is written from the sourced facts on this page, and only where they hold the answer.
How heavy is a walrus?
The walrus has a representative adult body mass of 825 kg, with values up to 846.5 kg reported. It falls in the giant size class (adult body mass over 250 kg).
What does a walrus eat?
The walrus is an invertivore, and its trophic level is carnivore.
Is the walrus endangered?
The walrus is listed as Vulnerable (VU) on the IUCN Red List, which is a threatened category.
How long does a walrus live?
The walrus has a lifespan of 40 years.
What kind of animal is a walrus?
The walrus is a marine mammal of the family Odobenidae, in the suborder Caniformia of the order Carnivora.
Who named the walrus?
The walrus, Odobenus rosmarus, was named by (Linnaeus, 1758).
How many young does a walrus have?
The walrus has 1.18 young per litter and 0.5 litters per year.
How long is a walrus pregnant?
The walrus has a gestation period of 353.7 days, with values up to 456.6 days (1.3 years) reported.
Sources and how to cite this page
Data as of 2026-11-11. How this page is put together.
- An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles · CC0 1.0 · E096-269
Myhrvold, N.P., Baldridge, E., Chan, B., Sivam, D., Freeman, D.L. & Ernest, S.K.M. (2015) An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96: 3109. https://doi.org/10.1890/15-0846R.1. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3563457.v1 - Catalogue of Life eXtended Release · CC BY 4.0 · 2026-10-16 XR
Catalogue of Life (2026). Catalogue of Life eXtended Release, version 2026-10-16 XR. Catalogue of Life Foundation, Amsterdam, Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.48580/dgzlf - Wikimedia Commons · per file (CC0 / public domain / CC BY green, CC BY-SA amber, anything else not displayed) · 2026-11-11
Wikimedia Commons contributors. Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org (each file credited to its author under its own licence). - EltonTraits 1.0: species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals · CC0 1.0 · 1.0
Wilman, H., Belmaker, J., Simpson, J., de la Rosa, C., Rivadeneira, M.M. & Jetz, W. (2014) EltonTraits 1.0: Species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals. Ecology 95: 2027. https://doi.org/10.1890/13-1917.1. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3559887.v1 - Wikidata · CC0 1.0 · 2026-11-11
Wikidata contributors. Wikidata. https://www.wikidata.org (data retrieved via the Wikidata Query Service). - Wikipedia (English) · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 2026-11-11
Wikipedia contributors. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. https://en.wikipedia.org (text under CC BY-SA 4.0; each block names its article and revision).
Embed a card for this animal on your own site
Copy this code. The card shows the photo with its credit, key facts and a link back to this page.
CreatureData. (2026). Walrus (Odobenus rosmarus). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/walrus
“Walrus (Odobenus rosmarus).” CreatureData, 2026, https://creaturedata.com/animals/walrus.
@misc{walrus_2026,
title = {Walrus (Odobenus rosmarus)},
author = {{CreatureData}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/walrus},
note = {Data as of 2026-11-11}
}