Walruses are not extinct, but their status highlights an ongoing conservation concern for this large Arctic marine mammal. Walruses are pinnipeds, closely related to seals and sea lions, recognizable by their substantial bulk and prominent tusks. They inhabit the frigid, shallow waters of the Arctic and Subarctic regions, depending heavily on sea ice for their survival. Their populations have faced severe decline and continue to struggle against environmental pressures.
The Definitive Conservation Status
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List currently classifies the walrus species, Odobenus rosmarus, as “Vulnerable.” This designation means the species faces a high risk of extinction in the wild if current threats persist. The overall population trend is decreasing, reflecting a fragile recovery from historical lows combined with modern challenges.
A “Vulnerable” status is one of the three categories defining species threatened with global extinction, placing the walrus below “Endangered” and “Critically Endangered.” The status is a reflection of the species’ slow reproductive rate and its sensitivity to environmental changes and human disturbance.
Distinguishing Walrus Population Groups
The conservation status is complicated by two geographically distinct subspecies: the Atlantic Walrus and the Pacific Walrus, which have different population sizes and distribution patterns. The Atlantic Walrus (O. r. rosmarus) is found in the seasonally ice-covered waters of the Canadian Arctic, Greenland, Svalbard, and western Arctic Russia. This subspecies has the smaller population, estimated at 20,000 to 25,000 individuals.
The Pacific Walrus (O. r. divergens) is significantly more numerous, inhabiting the Bering and Chukchi Seas between Alaska and Russia. Estimates suggest this population is around 129,000 to 257,000 animals, making it the dominant group globally. A small, isolated population in the Laptev Sea is sometimes considered a third subspecies.
Historical Exploitation and Population Decline
The walrus’s status is rooted in a history of intense commercial exploitation that drove populations to near collapse. During the 18th and 19th centuries, European and American whalers and sealers heavily targeted walruses across the Arctic. This unregulated hunting severely depleted the Atlantic subspecies, pushing it close to extinction in many areas.
The high demand for walrus products drove this historical slaughter. Tusks were valued as ivory, while blubber was boiled down to create oil for lubrication, soap, and lighting. Hides were also harvested for industrial use.
The Pacific walrus population was also drastically reduced, lowering their numbers to between 50,000 and 100,000 by the mid-20th century. This historical trough prompted conservation measures, including international treaties and hunting bans, which curtailed commercial exploitation. These restrictions allowed some populations, particularly the Pacific subspecies, to recover partially.
Modern Threats to Long-Term Survival
Today, the greatest threat to the walrus’s long-term survival is the rapid loss of sea ice habitat driven by a warming climate. Walruses rely on sea ice as a platform for resting between feeding dives, giving birth, and nursing their young. As summer sea ice retreats or disappears entirely, walruses are forced to abandon their foraging areas and “haul out” onto coastal land.
These forced terrestrial haul-outs create massive, dense gatherings of animals. This leads to deadly stampedes when the herd is spooked by aircraft, polar bears, or human activity. Calves are particularly susceptible to being crushed in these trampling events, which can result in hundreds or thousands of deaths in a single incident.
This displacement also forces the animals to travel farther and expend more energy to reach their food source, which impacts their health and reproductive success. Secondary threats compound the danger posed by habitat loss, particularly increasing human activity in the newly accessible Arctic waters.
Increased shipping traffic introduces noise pollution, which disturbs walruses and interferes with their communication and foraging. The risk of catastrophic oil spills from exploration and transport also increases as industrial activity expands into their traditional feeding grounds.