Walrus census reveals favorite habitat
Jay Skiles says that the walrus, to the native Alaskans, is as important as cattle are to the lower 48 states. (Fish and Wildlife Service)
Last spring, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service conducted a census of the Pacific walrus population in the Arctic.
They found it wasn’t as easy as going door to door with a pen and a questionnaire.
Jay Skiles: They used helicopters, light aircraft, boats, the Russians even participated with an icebreaker.
That’s Jay Skiles of NASA Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California.
Jay Skiles: It’s like managing a big cow herd, a big cattle herd. Walrus, to the native Alaskans, and transplanted Alaskans as well, is as important as cattle are to the lower 48. They use everything the walrus has – the hides for clothing and shoes, and tents or habitats. They eat the meat. They store the grease fat.
Skiles co-manages a program for high school and college students. The students took the census and combined it with information from satellites to determine the thickness of the ice the walrus live on.
They concluded that walrus spend most of their time on medium to thin ice. That’s a step in the direction of an easier walrus census for next time, in our role as stewards for the animals in a human world.
Our thanks to NASA: explore, discover, understand.
Jay Skiles explained “One of the major study conclusions is that walruses do not spend much time on thick ice. We postulate a number of reasons for that. The ice has to support these very large animals – and they’re in groupings of 15 to 16, to many tens of animals. And so they use the ice to haul out on, and they’re on the ice for mating, birthing, and sunning themselves. That’s usually on medium thickness ice, but they have to be near thin ice so they can break through the ice and get into the water in case their top predator shows up, and that’s the polar bear.”
Skiles runs the DEVELOP project.
NASA ice images aid study of Pacific Walrus Arctic habitat.
Our thanks to:
Jay Skiles
Research Scientist
Biospheric Branch
Earth Science Division
NASA’s Ames Research Center
Moffett Field, California
Additional Teacher Resources
NASA: NASA Ice Images Aid Study of Pacific Walrus Arctic Habitats
This article discusses NASA’s collaboration with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Alaska to determine the usefulness of satellite imagery for studying the effect of climate change on the Pacific walrus ice habitat in the Bering and Chukchi seas. It includes photos and related links.
U.S. Fish and Wildlife: Walrus
This U. S. Fish and Wildlife web page provides a fact sheet on the walrus.
SeaWorld: Walrus
This web page provides information on walrus habitat and distribution, adaptations, behavior, and more.
