Great Migrations: Pacific Walrus

I have posted about this program before, when it first aired, in this post. This embedded clip is a minute or so from the “behind the scenes” episode – this one is from a larger ABC News piece about the Great Migrations program. There’s some great walrus footage in here – it’s worth a look.

I really wish I could find a way to watch this entire program online, but neither Hulu nor Netflix has it for streaming. I’m not paying Comcast even MORE money per month just to get National Geographic Channel. Guess I might have to hunt down the DVD. Oh no wait, check that, Amazon has it for download/streaming through Amazon Prime. $19.99 though!

Amazing walrus chair

Walrus Chair Front View
www.maximoriera.com

Spanish Artist Máximo Riera has created a very dramatic piece of art in his “Walrus Chair”, part of a larger series of animal-inspired art chairs which includes a rhino and a truly amazing Octopus. I would love to see this chair (well chaise lounge, actually) in real life. The scale of it and the apparent realism must be very striking indeed.

The piece sure speaks for itself, but Maximo’s promotional material for this piece contains the following…

The Walrus was drafted to accommodate the seats upon its back, merging into the animal, with a flawless compatibility. This fact gives a uniqueness to the composition. The artist wanted to preserve the real elevation of the animal, making the person who sits on it, share the same perspective. One of the most challenging aspects in this work, was the skin’s texture and consistency. The Walrus owns a natural volume and magnitude, attributes that makes him recognizable and distinct from any other species. It’s thick skin wrinkles and rests along its surface, this was a key element to have in consideration to prevent an artificial result.

http://www.maximoriera.com/html/projects.php?pid=2

According to the silhouettes on Maxim’s press page – there are more animal chairs coming in the series. The page shows a place for a lion, a whale and a rhinoceros stag beetle! The sculptural elements of the chairs seem to be carved out of compressed foam.

Walrus chair rear view
www.maximoriera.com

Learn more at http://www.maximoriera.com

The site contains beautiful hi-res imagery of all of the chairs, as well as a well-designed PDF document about the entire series.

Horkers: The War Walruses of Skyrim

Like many many other people, I’ve been playing Skyrim lately. I got my copy for Christmas, so I haven’t played through the game too far, but I am looking forward to (well, not really, until I level up some more) running into a Horker! As you can see above, the Horker is a sort of walrus-beast and exists in the world of Skyrim as a wild random encounter. The Skyrim Wiki explains..

Horkers are passive-aggressive creatures usually found near water, particularly the ocean and cold areas. They are often encountered in groups and are highly social…

As in real life – Horkers are valuable for their meat and tusks. More information about their in-game stats is available here: http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Horker

Update: I ran into my first Horkers last night. They must have recognized me a a friend of the walrus, for they did not attack, and I left them alone.

Fus-Ro-Dah!

Walrus Pic of the Day: I’ll be up here, guys….

PHOTO: DANIEL BELTRA

Check out this photo! I found this on Twitter in a news article, and then Dan Ritzman (@lastcurlew) a campaign manager with the Sierra Club, sent me a larger version of the photo! Here’s what Dan has to say about the picture:

This happens fairly often when a few walrus gather on a melting ice chunk. The ice melts out underneath but the weight of the walrus keeps it submerged then when a bunch of the walrus swim off leaving one on the now lighter iceberg floats up suspending one walrus high in the air…

Thanks Dan!

Note: Longtime readers may remember another picture of this type posted here (http://www.worldwidewalrusweb.com/2011/04/21/walrus-pic-of-the-day-3/ ).

Nice piece of walrus clip art

If you’ve even done an image search for walrus art, you know there are MILLIONS of images out there. However, it can be tricky to find a piece of artwork that’s not a cartoon. That’s why this one caught my eye. It’s from Arthur’s Clip Art.

Here’s the link to the full size image (it’s a GIF and quite large).

6 Amazing Facts About Walruses

 

 

 

 

 

This is a link to an old page – and you may quibble with the term “amazing” – but there are indeed a good sized amount of walrus facts on the page below. Here’s a sample

In water, walruses can reach 35 km (22 mi) per hour, but they swim with a medium speed of 7 km (4 mi) per hour. Walruses do not go further than 30 km (19 mi) off the coast. Propelling is ensured by rear limbs, while the front limbs work like rudders.

Here’s the link to the full page (beware the underlined blue terms, they spawn ads):
http://news.softpedia.com/news/6-Amazing-Facts-About-Walruses-72981.shtml

Purple Walrus Design

OK, I don’t normally do this but I’ve been meaning to post about the many businesses (and particularly design firms) that use the walrus as part of their name, or logo. So anyway, Melissa Duffy, the principal behind Purple Walrus Design has recently discovered the Walrus Web and posted a few comments, asking me to take a look at her website and post a link. I guess I’m feeling generous what with it being the holidays and all… At the risk of opening myself up to even more SEO-optimization spammers all wanting me to check out their sites….

Meet Purple Walrus Design! A Long Island NY-based graphic designer, Melissa Duffy, is using the awesome visual and visceral power of the walrus to brand her design practice. Melissa offers a range of design services – ads, logos and corporate ID packages. If you click on the link “Why the Walrus?” to find out why Melissa chose a walrus as her branding, you find the answer!

Why not? Walruses are Awesome!

Thanks for the comments Melissa. I have a graphic design degree and have worked in digital production and various forms of advertising and digital marketing since the late 80’s. I no longer actively do design and production work as my career, but it’s been a great way to make a living. Doing it on your own is tough though, especially today, so maybe this modest post will help you build your brand! Thanks for the comments Melissa.

Love the logo? Want to “Grab Life by the Tusks?” visit the Purple Walrus cafepress store.

Purple Walrus also has a Facebook page, here.

Walrein, I choose you!

Many of you will recognize this image immediately. Yes, it’s Walrein, an ice and water-type Pokemon from the Pokemon Blue/Red series. For players, Walrein evolves from Seleo at level 44. If you’ve ever played Pokemon and used this guy – you’ll know that the Ice Ball attack is a powerful advantage in play.

I’m too old to have played Pokemon the first time around, but my now 11 year old son is a Pokemon master – he even made it to the finals in the regional video game tournament one year. Since he plays pretty much all available versions of Pokemon so much, I have played through Pokemon Blue and “Wally” the Walrein was part of my finishing team!

I enjoy the behavioral and habitat information that Walrein has in his bio:

Walrein live in large groups near the shore with their pre-evolved forms. These groups are always led by the largest male Walrein who acts as the beachmaster. Fighting for dominance among males can get pretty fierce, and many are the male Walrein who bear scars from challenging the beachmaster and losing.

Here’s more information about Walrein on the Bulbapedia, a community-driven Pokemon encyclopedia wiki.
http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Walrein_(Pok%C3%A9mon)

 

 

 

 

 

Walrus Islands State Game Refuge: I Want to Go!

Photo by National Geographic

The Walrus Islands State Game Refuge is located in Bristol Bay, Alaska.  It consists of a set of islands upon which many, many walrus haul out every summer. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game maintains a camp on the islands. It is possible to go there on your own, with a permit, but the best way to travel there seems to be with an outfitter. This paragraph is pulled from the ADFG’s site about the islands…

Best known among the WISGS islands is Round Island, where each summer large numbers of male walruses haul out on exposed, rocky beaches. Round Island is one of four major terrestrial haulouts in Alaska; the others are Capes Peirce (Togiak NWR), Newenham (Togiak NWR), and Seniavin (near Port Moller). Male walrus return to these haulouts every spring as the ice pack recedes northward, remaining in Bristol Bay to feed they haul out at these beach sites for several days between each feeding foray. The number of walrus using the island fluctuates significantly from year to year. However, up to 14,000 walrus have been counted on Round Island in a single day.

Here’s the link to the full page: http://www.adfg.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adfg=walrusislands.main

I would really like to travel to this place. I’ve recently been looking at Planet Earth Adventures’ site. They run expeditions to the Walrus Islands, several configurations, which include a 3-day camp. It’s $1,800 but I’m putting money aside, ’cause I’d really like to go on one of these. Here’s a link to the page about these expeditions.

This is the setting in the Kindle e-book “How I Learned to Love the Walrus” by Beth Orsoff, which I posted about here.

Freehand Profit: Super Cool Street Art Walrus G.A.S. Mask

This killer image comes from the blog of “Freehand Profit” an LA-based street art creator.

Freehand Profit is a Los Angeles based artist who earned his name as a graffiti artist in DC and Northern Virginia. In 2005 he graduated Corcoran College of Art & Design with a BA in Fine Arts. Since then he’s rooted himself in LA’s Hip-Hop scene and has been working to forget what he learned in art school and make work without the pretentiousness that all too often accompanies “good” art.

Currently Freehand Profit is exploring the iconographic nature of masks through his MASK365 project…

This walrus mask is part of the MASK 365 project – G.A.S. stands for Guerrilla Art Squadron, and there’s a section on FP’s blog with the full series of mask images at this link: http://freehandprofit.wordpress.com/category/guerrilla-art-squadron/  (Check out the excellent Star Wars inspired G.A.S. Mask illustrations while you’re there).

You can find this walrus mask image at: http://freehandprofit.wordpress.com/2010/06/07/the-time-has-come-my-little-friends-to-talk-of-other-things/

Judging by my previous posts about this genre, the walrus is somewhat popular for street artists.
I love this image. Great cyber-punk illustration. I like this guy’s work.

Visit Freehand Profit’s blog, the Hip Hop Nerd.
Follow Freehand Profit on Twitter.