A note on a walrus’ European odyssey

Abstract

This study reports on the first successful identification of the site of origin of an extralimital walrus in Europe. On 24 February 2010 an adult male Atlantic walrus (Odobenus rosmarus rosmarus) migrant was instrumented with a SPOT-5 satellite-linked transmitter (SLT) while hauled out on a beach on the Faroe Islands at 62° 15' N/06° 32' W. This SLT transmitted until 5 March during which period the walrus made local movements, likely for feeding. Transmissions were not received during 6-25 March, however, visual observations during this time indicated that the walrus remained at the Faroe Islands. A second transmitter was deployed on the same animal on 25 March 2010 at another site on the islands (62° 16' N/07° 04' W). Activity data collected over 13 days indicated that the walrus hauled out in three different places in the Faroe Islands and used a total of 24% of its time resting on land. On 29 March 2010 the walrus left the Faroe Islands and headed WNW towards NE Iceland. On 2 April it took a NNE course and swam towards Svalbard where the last location was received from a sea ice covered area on 25 April 2010 at 78° 27' N/09° 20' E (i.e. ca. 40 km west of the island of Prins Karls Forland in the western Svalbard archipelago). During 29 March-22 April the walrus swam a minimum distance of 2216 km between the last location at the Faroe Islands and the first location at Svalbard, with an average swimming speed of 4.5 km/h. A genetic analysis indicated that this walrus belonged to the Svalbard-Franz Josef Land subpopulation, thereby confirming that it returned to its site of origin.

Walruses (Odobenus rosmarus rosmarus) in the Pechora Sea in the context of contemporary population structure of Northeast Atlantic walruses

“…Given the presence of only one such haplotype within 212 Atlantic walruses, it is reasonable to assume that such long distance migration is rare. However, the finding of two historic haplotypes in bones of animals thought to have been harvested during the mid 1800s on SVA (SBj_08 and SH_16) (Lindqvist et al, 2016), matching sequences from EGR, suggests occasional connections between the areas and moreover supports observations that walruses sometimes do migrate long distances (Born & Gjertz, 1993;Wiig et al, 1996;Freitas et al, 2009;Born et al, 2014).…”

Ancient DNA reveals the chronology of walrus ivory trade from Norse Greenland

“…Nonetheless, it is highly improbable that western clade walruses could have occupied the historically recorded hunting grounds of the Barents Sea region in the Middle Ages, given the universal distribution of the eastern clade throughout the Northeast Atlantic region, the direction of the East Greenland current [ 86 ], the predominantly coastal habitat of the walrus [ 10 ], and the high levels of natal homing of walruses [ 30 , 34 , 35 , 91 , 92 ]. Moreover, given the location of Iceland well within the distribution of the eastern clade, and its recorded accessibility to Svalbard walruses [ 93 ], it is most likely that Icelandic walruses were of the eastern clade.…”

Resting and swimming metabolic rates in juvenile walruses (Odobenus rosmarus)

“…2 in Williams, 1999). Again, the reasons are unclear, but may relate to the general observations that, as grazers, walruses generally swim at relatively low velocities for their size (Born et al, 2014; Kastelein, 2009), are not very streamlined (Fish, 2000), and have an intermediate or mixed form of aquatic locomotion compared to other pinnipeds (Pierce et al, 2011).…”