The Life of Animals | Walrus | Walruses live to about 20-30 years old in the wild. Breeding Occurs from January to March, peaking in February. Males aggregate in the water around ice-bound groups of estrous females and engage in competitive vocal displays.
Because ovulation is suppressed until the calf is weaned, females give birth every two years at most, leaving the walrus with the lowest reproductive rate of any pinniped The majority of the Pacific walrus population summers north of the Bering Strait in the Chukchi Sea along the north shore of eastern Siberia, around Wrangel Island, in the Beaufort Sea along the north shore of Alaska, and in the waters the between Those locations. Smaller numbers of males summer in the Gulf of Anadyr on the south shore of Siberia's Chukchi Peninsula and in Bristol Bay off the south shore of southern Alaska west of the Alaska Peninsula.
A 28.000 year old fossil walrus specimen was dredged out of the San Francisco Bay, Indicating That the Pacific Walrus ranged far south During the last ice age. The much Smaller Atlantic population ranges from the Canadian Arctic, Greenland, Svalbard and the western portion of the Russian Arctic. In April 2006, the Canadian Species at Risk Act listed the Northwest Atlantic Walrus population (Québec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Labrador) as being extirpated in Canada.
The isolated Laptev population is confined year-round to the central and western regions of the Laptev Sea, the easternmost regions of the Kara Sea, and the westernmost regions of the East Siberian Sea. Current Populations are estimated to be the between 5.000 and 10.000 individuals.
The Atlantic Walrus was Nearly eradicated by commercial harvest and has a much Smaller population. Both the orca and the polar bears are also most Likely to prey on walrus calves. The bears also isolates the walrus walruses overwinter and are Unable to escape a charging bear is inaccessible due to holes in the ice diving. However, even an injured walrus is a formidable opponent for a polar bear, and direct attacks are rare. Polar bears, walruses Often battles are extremely protracted and exhausting and bears have been known to forgo the attack after injuring a walrus. Orcas attack walruses regularly although it is believed That walruses have successfully defended themselves via a counterattack against the larger cetaceans
