What a marvelous sight it must be for a person standing on an Alaskan cliff to see a great mass of huge brown walruses sprawled on the ocean shore below. There are sometimes hundreds or thousands of them-some lying on their stomachs or sides and others lying on their backs-all pressed tightly together, with their long white tusks pointing in every direction!
They don’t seem to worry that the sharp tusks of others might pierce them. However, a latecomer working his way through the mass is always greeted with angry snorts and grunts and even some jabbing with the tusks, but not enough to really harm it.
Walruses live only in the cold Arctic, far from civilization. Daily they eat about 200 pounds of clams, snails, oysters, fish and other marine life from the ocean. When not busy looking for food they like to rest on shore, sprawling closely together to share each other’s warmth. At certain times of the year these groups break up into smaller numbers.
These giants keep gaining weight. An old male may weigh 2000 to 3000 pounds. Their entire bodies are covered with a thick black layer of wrinkly blubber, covered with orange-brown hair, making wonderful insulation for them from the icy-cold waters, just like a warm blanket.
Walruses are anything but pretty. They have puffy, whiskered muzzles with tusks that point downward from their upper jaws. These tusks are actually extra-long teeth, six inches or more in diameter, tapering to a sharp point at the end. They are about a yard long and weigh about 12 pounds each.
The Creator designed their tusks to handle several jobs: for protection from their enemies (polar bears), for pulling themselves up on the ice, and for digging shellfish from the ocean bottom. Tusks of the males are much longer and thicker than the females’.
Eskimos are now the only people allowed to hunt walruses, and for many they are a main source of food. Catching one is a great event, not only for the amount of meat it supplies, but for its valuable ivory tusks and its skin which makes good leather.
Animals such as these may seem strange to us, but they have a definite place in God’s creation. When we think of all He has created, small and great, we can only agree with the Bible verse, “Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power: for Thou hast created all things, and for Thy pleasure they are and were created.” Revelation 4:1111Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created. (Revelation 4:11).
Can you say, as King David did, “Happy is he... whose hope is in the Lord his God: which made heaven, and earth, the sea, and all that therein is”? Psalm 146:5,65Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord his God: 6Which made heaven, and earth, the sea, and all that therein is: which keepeth truth for ever: (Psalm 146:5‑6). This is true happiness.
ML-03/10/1991