Polar Bear vs Walrus

[DinosaurMichael]

Polar Bear - Ursus maritimus
The polar bear (Ursus maritimus) is a bear native largely within the Arctic Circle encompassing the Arctic Ocean, its surrounding seas and surrounding land masses. It is the world's largest land carnivore and also the largest bear, together with the omnivorous Kodiak Bear, which is approximately the same size. An adult male weighs around 350–680 kg (770–1,500 lb), while an adult female is about half that size. Although it is closely related to the brown bear, it has evolved to occupy a narrower ecological niche, with many body characteristics adapted for cold temperatures, for moving across snow, ice, and open water, and for hunting the seals which make up most of its diet. Although most polar bears are born on land, they spend most of their time at sea. Their scientific name means "maritime bear", and derives from this fact. Polar bears can hunt their preferred food of seals from the edge of sea ice, often living off fat reserves when no sea ice is present. The polar bear is classified as a vulnerable species, with eight of the nineteen polar bear subpopulations in decline. For decades, large scale hunting raised international concern for the future of the species but populations rebounded after controls and quotas began to take effect. For thousands of years, the polar bear has been a key figure in the material, spiritual, and cultural life of Arctic indigenous peoples, and polar bears remain important in their cultures.



Walrus - Odobenus rosmarus
The walrus (Odobenus rosmarus) is a large flippered marine mammal with a discontinuous circumpolar distribution in the Arctic Ocean and sub-Arctic seas of the Northern Hemisphere. The walrus is the only living species in the Odobenidae family and Odobenus genus. It is subdivided into three subspecies: the Atlantic walrus (O. rosmarus rosmarus) which lives in the Atlantic Ocean, the Pacific walrus (O. rosmarus divergens) which lives in the Pacific Ocean, and O. rosmarus laptevi, which lives in the Laptev Sea. The walrus is easily recognized by its prominent tusks, whiskers and great bulk. Adult Pacific males can weigh more than 1,700 kilograms (3,700 lb) and, among pinnipeds, are exceeded in size only by the two species of elephant seals. It resides primarily in shallow oceanic shelf habitat, spending a significant proportion of its life on sea ice in pursuit of its preferred diet of benthic bivalve mollusks. It is a relatively long-lived, social animal and is considered a keystone species in Arctic marine ecosystems. The walrus has played a prominent role in the cultures of many indigenous Arctic peoples, who have hunted the walrus for its meat, fat, skin, tusks and bone. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, the walrus was the object of heavy commercial exploitation for blubber and ivory and its numbers declined rapidly. Its global population has since rebounded, though the Atlantic and Laptev populations remain fragmented and at historically depressed levels. While some outsized Pacific males can weigh as much as 2,000 kg (4,400 lb), most weigh between 800 and 1,680 kg (1,800 and 3,700 lb). The Atlantic subspecies weighs about 10–20% less than the Pacific subspecies. The Atlantic Walrus also tends to have relatively shorter tusks and somewhat more flattened snout. Females weigh about two-thirds as much, with the Atlantic females averaging 560 kg (1,200 lb), sometimes weighing as little as 400 kg (880 lbs), and the Pacific female averaging 794 kg (1,750 lb). Length ranges from 2.2 to 3.6 m (7.2–12 ft). It is the second largest pinniped, after the elephant seals. The walrus' body shape shares features with both sea lions (eared seals: Otariidae) and seals (true seals: Phocidae). As with otariids, it can turn its rear flippers forward and move on all fours; however, its swimming technique is more like that of true seals, relying less on flippers and more on sinuous whole body movements. Also like phocids, it lacks external ears.

[creature386]

The walrus would try to flee in a hunting scenario, that's sure. In a fighting scenario, I would back the polar bear on land, because of it's maneuverability.
On carnivora, Verdugo posted some data about the polar bear predation on walrus. I found that interesting:

The hunters say that he will kill the biggest bull-walrus, although nearly three times his own weight, by springing upon him from behind, and battering in his skull by repeated blows.

Does anyone have the source for that?

[jhg]

Polar dominates on land; walrus dominates in water. How do you answer to that?

[Deleted]

Walrus is too thick and has long tusks. I'd say it wins.

[dinosauria101]

Wonderful classic. Bear on land, walrus in water I'd say.

[Deleted]

Polar bears can kill adult walruses but it is tough as they have a thick neck and blubber which protects their vital join allowing them to escape to the sea.

[elosha11]

Dangerous confrontation for the bear even on land, particularly as it would have to watch its back in case another from the walrus herd (is that the right word?) attacked. But one on one, more often than not, my money's on the bear. Here's a prime example. This also really cuts across the argument that polar bears don't attack formidable prey and thus can't be favored in a match up against the largest Kodiaks. Walruses are probably about as dangerous as anything a brown bear might attack, comparable to a moose or even a buffalo. Here's a prime example of this fight, although I note the walrus might be a female, as it seems comparable in size to the bear.



Here's another example where the bear doesn't fare so well, but notice how malnourished the smaller, female bear is. A healthy male polar bear would have far greater chance of success one on one, with even a bull walrus. This video even acknowledges that male bears hunt adult walruses.



Here's an example of a male bear predating a baby walrus, but notice that the entire herd flees in panic. The adults seem to want to have no part in confronting the bear.



Finally, here's a failed predation attempt but again notice the flight reaction of the walrus, and the bear's dominance in the fight situation. I think only a full grown alpha bull walrus would stand a decent chance 1 on 1 with a healthy male bear. But of course, since they are pack animals, the chances of a true 1 on 1 scenario are slim.

[DonaldCengXiongAzuma]

From walruses we pass to bears. Mr.Lamont believes that the Polar Bear - the Ursus Maritimus of naturalists - is, in a state of nature, the largest and strongest carnivorous animal in the world. Be this as it may, his first specimen - the one which he was watching through the old opera-glass of which we have spoken - was a monster. His carcass measured eight feet in length, and almost as much in circumference. He stood four and a half feet high at the shoulder. The fore-paws were 34 inches around. His weight was at least 1200 pounds: of this the fat constituted 400 pounds, and the hide 100. When skinned, his neck and shoulders were like those of a bull. The hunters say that he will kill the biggest bull-walrus, although nearly three times his own weight, by springing upon him from behind, and battering in his skull by repeated blows. Mr. Lamont believes this, though he doubts the stories told of the way in which he is killed by hunters. One man, who professes to know all about it, says that the hunters use a spear having a cross-piece a couple of feet from the point. Hunter presents point to Ursus; Ursus seizes spear by cross-piece, and in trying to drag it away buries the blade in his own body, and so kills himself.



And this:

Stout as he is, Ursa maritimus has to use cunning to get a living. He relies mainly upon walruses and seals. Though quite competent to manage the biggest walrus singly, he is overmatched by a herd; and unluckily for him walruses are apt to go in herds. He can not pick up a "junger" without bringing down upon him a score of tusked cousins and uncles. Then the seals are so shrewd. In the water they do not fear him. They can outswim and outdive him. There they will play around him in a manner calculated to aggravate his feelings to the utmost. Mr. Lamont thinks he catches one in the water now and then, but he can not con- ceive how he does it. Upon the ice Ursa has the advantage. But the seals know this, and sleep with both ears and one eye open. But Ursa's eyes and nose are of the sharpest. When either of these tell him that seals are floating about on the ice he slips into the water, half a mile or so to the leeward, and paddles quietly along, with his nose only visible, until he is close under the cake of ice on the very edge of which the seal is reposing. Then one jump, and a blow of his huge paw, settles the business. Between strength and cunning Ursa manages to make a quite comfortable living, and keep himself in very good order. Three which Mr. Lamont killed yielded 600 pounds of fat. "What a thousand pities," he exclaims, "that it is not worth 3s. 6d. a pot, as in the Burlington Arcade!"

www.explorenorth.com/library/weekly/aa032201c.htm

I do beleive a male polar bear is capable of taking down a bull walrus eventually if it gets too far from land but from the article above 'Though quite competent to manage the biggest walrus singly, he is overmatched by a herd; and unluckily for him walruses are apt to go in herds'. The reason why: the walruses thick neck and skin of the walrus makes it hard for the polar bear's teeth to reach the jagular vain or even pierce a vital organ.
The polar bear would have a much better chance killing a walrus if it is sick and seperates itself from the rest of the herd, turns carnivorous and feeds on whale carcasses and seals (an old bull which might isolate itself), or in winter at a breathing hole:

"Polar bears, Ursus rnaritirnus, are large, powerful predators

that sometimes attack and kill species such as the walrus,

Odobenus rosrnarus (KiliaanandS tirling, 1978a)n d the bearded

seal, Erignathus barbatus (Stirling and Archibald, 1977; Smith,

1980), which can be heavier and larger than themselves."



Walruses that overwinter in an area with restricted access to water become potentially vulnerable to predation by polar bears. Three observations support this. On 19 April 1976 one of us (HPLK) found two walruses that apparently had been killed by polar bears. One was an adult female 22+ years old (289 cm long, estimated weight 400+ kg). There was blood on top of her frozen over haul-out hole, indicating that she might have been frozen out when the bear attacked. The other walrus (unsexed) was just under 2 years old (243 cm long, estimated weight 270 kg). A blood trail indicated that it had been captured beside or in a 60 cm wide channel that went around the circumference of a 25 to 30 m diameter grounded iceberg.







Examination showed that both walruses had large numbers of sharp deep punctures about their heads which could only have been made by bear claws, suggesting that they may have been killed by multiple blows. Soper (1928) quotes a report by Hantzch of a large bear in the vicinity of Kikerten Islands, Cumberland Gulf, attacking three walruses and killing a large male which it tore extensively about the head. Akpaleeapik, a Grise Fiord Eskimo, also informed us of a walrus that a polar bear killed with a blow in the head as it surfaced to breathe through a hole in the ice. On 29 April 1976 Mr. Tai-Ho of Klondike Helicopters tracked a polar bear to a walrus that he estimated to be less than 3 m long with tusks 20 to 25 cm long. Tracks and blood in the snow around the walrus's breathing hole (1 to 1.5 m diameter) indicated a fight had taken place very recently. The walrus was covered with blood and one tusk was broken. Despite a careful search, no bear tracks leading away from the site were found, suggesting that the bear may have been killed and sunk in the water. Freuchen (1935) reported finding a polar bear that had been killed by a walrus, and Perry (1966) summarizes similar observations from the journals of early arctic explorers. Although predation by bears is likely not of any significance to the walrus population as a whole (Mansfield, 1958; Loughrey, 1959) such encounters may be more frequent than previously seemed apparent.





H. P. L. Kiliaan and Ian Stirling, Observations on Overwintering Walruses in the Eastern Canadian High Arctic. Journal of Mammalogy Vol. 59, No. 1 (Feb., 1978), pp. 197-200.





The polar bear and walrus, traditional rivals, occasionally come in contact while feeding on whale carcasses or while killing seals. If a walrus is in the water, a polar bear will not enter. The walrus is the only polar animal that the bear really fears.



Reaching fifteen feet in length and weighing as much as one and a half tons, the walrus is more than a formidable adversary. If the two animals encounter each other on land, the polar bear will have an edge. When they meet each other in the water, the walrus has been known to grab the polar bear from below and, using his ivory tusks, which often grow more than thirty inches in length, to stab the bear in the back, driving the tusks to the hilt. The carcasses of polar bears and walruses have been found coupled in this manner.









Koch, T.J. 1975 The Year of the Polar Bear p. 81.

Credited to Ursus Artos