Compare морж ( morž) in Russian, mursu in Finnish, morša in Northern Saami, and morse in French. The archaic English word for walrus- morse-is widely thought to have come from the Slavic languages, which in turn borrowed it from Finno-Ugric languages, and ultimately (according to Ante Aikio) from an unknown Pre-Finno-Ugric substrate language of Northern Europe. Several place names in Iceland, Greenland and Norway may originate from walrus sites: Hvalfjord, Hvallatrar and Hvalsnes to name some, all being typical walrus breeding grounds. The Norwegian manuscript Konungs skuggsjá, thought to date from around AD 1240, refers to the walrus as rosmhvalr in Iceland and rostungr in Greenland (walruses were by now extinct in Iceland and Norway, while the word evolved in Greenland). The species name rosmarus is Scandinavian. An alternative theory is that it comes from the Dutch words wal 'shore' and reus 'giant'. For example, the Old Norse word hrosshvalr means 'horse-whale' and is thought to have been passed in an inverted form to both Dutch and the dialects of northern Germany as walros and Walross. Its first part is thought to derive from a word such as Old Norse hvalr ('whale') and the second part has been hypothesized to come from the Old Norse word hross ('horse'). The origin of the word walrus derives from a Germanic language, and it has been attributed largely to either the Dutch language or Old Norse. 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.Įtymology Walrus, labeled Ros marus piscis, is depicted in а 16th-century map of Scandinavia (the Carta Marina) The population of walruses dropped rapidly all around the Arctic region. During the 19th century and the early 20th century, walrus were widely hunted for their blubber, walrus ivory, and meat. 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. Walruses are relatively long-lived, social animals, and are considered to be a " keystone species" in the Arctic marine regions. 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. divergens), which lives in the Pacific Ocean.Īdult 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. rosmarus), which lives in the Atlantic Ocean, and the Pacific walrus ( O. This species is subdivided into two subspecies: the Atlantic walrus ( O. It is the only extant species in the family Odobenidae and genus Odobenus. The walrus ( Odobenus rosmarus) is a large pinniped marine mammal with discontinuous distribution about the North Pole in the Arctic Ocean and subarctic seas of the Northern Hemisphere.
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