When I visit the Arctic, we usually find Walrusses hauled out on land. Typically, the ice has retreated that far from their feeding grounds, that the animals can’t haul out on ice anymore and have to find a sandy beach. This year, however, there is still a lot of ice on the northern shores, so their usual haul-out sites are still blocked. Not that this is any problem for them, as they now have ice to haul out on. They drag themselves on the ice with their tusks and wait peacefully until it’s time again to go out for another feeding trip.

For us this makes it a bit less predictable where we might find Walrusses, but on the other hand, it might be nicer to see them on a nice ice floe, in contrast to just a pile of blubber on land.