ECOLOGY AND BIOLOGY OF THE PACIFIC WALRUS 



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Fig. 128. Healing superficial wounds, presumably from tusk strikes, in the skin on the 

 shoulders of an adult male walrus. The largest wound (lower left, inset) was about 

 10 cm long. (Photo by G. C. Ray) 



place during the mating season, and that the wounds are inflicted by the tusks of 

 opponents, during fights over display "territories." I have observed such fights on 

 only three occasions. In each instance they were the most violent of any 

 interactions that I ever had witnessed. Each took place in the water when the 

 display area of one bull was invaded by another. I did not see any wounding but 

 believe that some took place because of the intensity of these fights. At the time, 6 

 of 53 (11.3%) adult bulls in the area had open, bleeding wounds; conversely, at 

 Round Island in June and July, less than 1 % of the males had bleeding wounds. 

 K. W. Kenyon (personal communication) reported the following: 



On August 15, 1958 Mr. Alton Y. Roppel found an adult male walrus dead on 

 North Rookery beach, St. George Island, Alaska. The cause of death was not 

 determined. The head was removed and cooked. During cleaning of the skull a 

 tusk tip about 2V2 inchas long was discovered imbedded in the flesh on the left 

 cheek, under the eye. The skin had healed, so that no external evidence of the 

 imbedded tusk tip was seen prior to dissection. 



Apparently, adults are not the only ones damaged by tusk strikes, for I 

 observed a 10-month-old calf that appeared to have been wounded by tusks. 

 Three of its four wounds were deep, bleeding punctures situated along the dorsal 



