Devon Island: Walrus on Ice
Walrus on ice sounds like some sort of sashimi….. Cruising through the Lancaster Sound along the shores of the Devon Island, we came across several walruses on the floating sea ice (more specifically, the Atlantic Walrus, a much less numerous species then their Pacific brethren). Walruses are massive, weighing over 2000kg/4400lb, with huge tusks that they use for fighting and dragging themselves on the ground. The guys (or gals) we saw were just lounging on ice in the rare arctic sun and couldn’t care less about the ship cruising by. Walruses use their whiskers to discover the food deep at the ocean floor and then suck the mussels and oysters out of their shells, generating suction at 8x that of the most powerful Dyson vacuum cleaner!
