[ROAR]

Hello, and welcome to Weird, gross, and Beautiful, a casual discussion about the animals that I think are weird, gross, beautiful, or all three.

Today, we're talking about the walrus.

Brrr-aw!

Walruses can be found in the Arctic Circle with all of their friends, or sometimes in Alaska.

Right now, they are supposed to be at the Arctic Circle.

But because of climate change, there is no ice.

There's no ice at all.

And so they have swam down, some 35,000 of them right now are hanging out in Alaska.

But it's not the first time that this has happened.

It happened in 2007, 2009, and 2011.

The extent of the ice is the sixth lowest that it's ever been, ever-- like, in history.

35,000 of them, that is so many.

Why are there so many?

Because they're very gregarious animals.

They like to hang out.

They have groups that they hang out in that range from the tens to thousands.

Walruses are so huge.

They are one of the largest flippered marine mammals, in fact.

The males can weigh up to like 3,700 pounds.

Their skin makes up about 20% of that weight.

And the blubber that's underneath the skin is half a foot thick.

They're chubby.

They're so cute.

I just want to snuggle with them, but you shouldn't do that.

They're very territorial and very dangerous.

Yeah, them tusks, though!

They can grow to be about three feet long, and are actually canine teeth that grow like throughout their life.

They're found on both males and females.

And they use them for a variety of reasons.

Sometimes they use it to haul themselves out of water because they're so big.

And so they're just like, ah-ugh!

And then they flock onto the shore.

And they also use it to make breathing holes in the ice.

So they can be under water for about 30 minutes.

But since that's not a lot of very long time-- I mean, obviously, compared to us it's very long--

But they need them breathing holes.

The males can also use their tusks aggressively to maintain their territory or protect their harems.

Harems are groups of the lady walruses that all have sex with one dude.

The walrus harems have a ratio of 1:23, give or take.

But fortunately for the gals, they don't start giving birth until they're about seven or eight years old.

And they'll only give birth every three years because the gestation period is 15 months.

And once they have the babies, the babies need help from their mamas for over two years.

It's not like it matters, because he's got 22 other [BLEEP] to choose from.

When the babies come out, guys, they're huge!

They come out weighing anywhere from 99 to 165 pounds!

Ow!

And they gain two pounds per day.

That's insane.

I mean, it's to protect themselves from the cold, because they live in the Arctic, usually, when there's ice there.

The walruses have these little like mustache-looking whiskers, right?

And they're so-- they're super cute and I love them.

But they're not hairs.

They're actually very similar to cat whiskers.

They are functioning organs.

And they're called mustacial vibrissae.

Hey~ Mustacial?

Just like a mustache.

They're very sensitive, and so they will use them to find their favorite snacks, specifically like shellfish, at the bottom of the sea floor.

And they'll use their little whiskers.

They're going to be like, oink, oink, oink, oink, is how I image they sound on the bottom of the sea floor, although, that's probably very inaccurate.

That walrus in "Alice in Wonderland" was a douche.

What a rude cartoon character.

He ate up all those little oysters.

They were just babies.

Man, these walruses are weird, gross, and beautiful.

Thank you so much for watching Weird, Gross, and Beautiful.

My name is Catie Wayne.

And if you would like to, you can follow me on Twitter at catiewayne, and suggest an animal for me to cover.

This week's animal was suggested by Molly Fosco.

Thank you so much, my love.

Mwah!

And if you would like to, please check out this video over here about how we killed half of the animals on the planet.

Bush babies, see you never in my life because I killed half of you!

And please like and share this video with your friends.

And you know, I love you all so much.

And I'll see you next time.

Bye.

Mwah!

[HOOTING]