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

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.

Christmas Shopping this weekend? How about adopting a walrus?

Remember this post from last year? You can “adopt” a walrus from the WWF. For a small donation you get a really nice stuffed walrus, a certificate and the satisfaction of knowing you’re helping the World Widlife Fund in their efforts to preserve endagered and threatened species like (unfortunately) the Walrus.

Here’s a link to the original post with the full info.

100th post

Wow. I just realized that I pushed my 100th post last night. Not sure these milestones mean anything, but hey – 100 posts – that’s a lot to say about walruses! And there’s a lot more to come.

For historical purposes – here’s a link the the first post on the Walrus Web. And here’a a link to the post explaining why I got interested in doing this in the first place.

Thanks for your visits and your comments. This has been, and continues to be a fun project.