OCEANIC MAMMALS 469 



Family ODOBENIDAE: Walruses 



PACIFIC WALRUS 

 ODOBENUS DIVERGENS (Illiger) 



[Trichechus] divergens Illiger, Abhandl. Akad. Wiss. Berlin, for 1804-11, p. 68, 1815 

 (about 35 miles south of Icy Cape, Alaska). 



SYNONYMS: Trichechus obesus Illiger, op. cit., p. 64, 1815 (nomen nudum), and of various 

 later authors (PNorth Pacific); Trichechus cooki Fremery, Bijdrag. tot de Natuurk. 

 Wetensch., vol. 6, p. 385, 1831; Rosmarus arcticus Pallas, Zool. Rosso- Asiat., p. 

 269, 1831. 



FIGS.: Allen, J. A., 1880, figs 14, 17, 19, 21, 22, 24, 27, 29, 31, 33, 35, 36 (skull in com- 

 parison with Atlantic walrus); Nelson, 1916, fig. p. 430 (col.). 



The Pacific walrus was first distinguished from the Atlantic 

 walrus on the basis of Capt. James Cook's account and figure 

 showing its converging tusks in what may have been a female. 

 In the adult male the tusks are longer and less diverging (in 

 spite of the specific name!) than in the Atlantic species. The 

 tusks, when removed from their sockets, may show a length 

 up to a yard or slightly more. Externally the two species are 

 much alike, but the Pacific walrus has shorter and smaller 

 mustachial bristles, and the "muzzle is relatively deeper and 

 broader, in correlation with the greater breadth and depth of 

 the skull anteriorly. " An adult male will weigh upwards of a 

 ton and a half, with a total length of about 10 feet for head 

 and body. In the reference above noted, J. A. Allen (1880, p. 

 156) has given a minute comparison of the skeletal characters 

 of the two species. 



The Pacific walrus is found in a somewhat limited range of 

 the Arctic coasts of eastern Asia and northwestern North 

 America, from about Cape Chalagski (Chalakskai) or Chaun 

 Bay in about longitude 170 E. to Banks Land, to the east of 

 the Alaskan coasts; thence it is found south to the coasts of 

 Kamchatka, Bering Strait, and the Pribilof Islands. At the 

 present time it is less often seen south of the Alaska Peninsula. 

 In autumn it migrates somewhat to the southward, reaching 

 the mouth of the Amur and Sakhalin. Northward walruses 

 have been found common as far as ships have penetrated, in 

 the broken icefields. 



Nelson (1916) writes: "Walruses were formerly very abun- 

 dant in Bering Sea, especially about the Fur Seal Islands, and 

 along the coast north of the Peninsula of Alaska, but few now 

 survive there." He mentions that in July, 1881, the steamer 



