A walrus is a massive marine mammal that lives in the Arctic seas around the North Pole. Picture an animal the size of a small car, weighing up to two tons, with thick wrinkled skin, a bristly mustache, and two enormous ivory tusks jutting down from its upper jaw. Those tusks, which can grow three feet long, help walruses haul themselves onto ice floes, dig for clams on the ocean floor, and establish dominance in their social groups.

Walruses spend their time both in frigid water and on ice or rocky shores, often gathering in huge groups called herds that can number in the thousands. They're remarkably adapted to Arctic life: a thick layer of blubber keeps them warm, and they can slow their heart rate to stay underwater for up to thirty minutes while hunting for clams, snails, and other seafloor creatures.

Despite their enormous size and fearsome tusks, walruses are generally peaceful unless threatened. They use their sensitive whiskers to feel around in murky water for food, and they communicate with each other through bellowing calls and barks. Indigenous Arctic peoples have hunted walruses for thousands of years, using every part of the animal for food, tools, and shelter.