Let’s take a look at our two contestants:
– The polar bear, the biggest and heaviest living land carnivore on earth, weighs at around 450 kg (992 lbs), twice the size of a Siberian tiger or a grizzly bear, probably more.
– The walrus, one of the biggest living pinnipeds (ie, the seal family), is one hell of a massive animal that weighs around 1000–2000 kg (2204–4409 lbs)! Hence, it’s an enormous beast filled with blubber but well-equipped to kill, especially with its bulk and prominent tusks (present in both males and females) that can disembowel an attacking polar bear.
On this basis, it’s no wonder why polar bears, both males and females – no matter how famished they can be –, generally hesitate before attacking walruses, since these guys are not so cute nor lazy as they appear. On the contrary, they are huge dangerous mammals equipped with 1 meter long tusks, and can become formidable fighters when threatened. Consequently, agitated walruses have been witnessed to fatally and repeatedly stab attacking bears, particularly when the predators followed them in the water or found themselves at a disadvantage, resulting in serious injury and even death.
Of course, one big walrus is bad enough, but even that is nothing compared to a whole stampeding group of walruses, a big moving wall of blubber with sharp tusks.
Substantially, when hunting walruses, polar bears prefer to target young calves, weak and sick adults, or individuals that have strayed too far from the safety of the group, all while avoiding fully-grown healthy pinnipeds. In principle, the bear’s method of hunting consists of rushing at beached aggregations, and attacking a walrus that’s been crushed or wounded in the sudden exodus.
Another method occurs when the bears isolate walruses that find themselves incapable of escaping a charging predator due to inaccessible diving holes.
Nevertheless, even an injured walrus remains a formidable opponent for the polar bear, and that is what makes direct attacks pretty rare, and can even force a hungry bear to give up on assaulting, despite its desperate need for blubber. And that’s why polar bears, both males and females, generally fear walruses.
No they’re not afraid of Walrus. Polar bears do consider Walrus calf and medium sized sub adult walrus as prey.
But a very large 4,000 pound Walrus with a long tusk would surely injure the bear by defensive strategy and fight back.
Walrus are more than twice the size of largest known Polar bears. A Polar bear must be cautious , would think twice and should have learnt that the giant Walrus is difficult prey to hunt and tackle.
In land the Walrus is vulnerable to the faster Polar Bear.
But it water, a full grown Walrus can be extremely dangerous to handle, they can easily puncture and kill a Polar Bear in deep water with their 3 to 4 ft tusks.
The Walrus dedicates more than 1,800 pounds possibly higher on striking with it’s tusks alone with speed of approximately 28 feet per second, enough to puncture/impale deep into the Polar bear body /torso and cause death.
The hide of of a 4,000 pound Walrus is too thick, difficult and challenging for the sharp claws and jaws of a Polar Bear to tear and do damage. The paw swipe of a Polar bear is extremely powerful but fades in comparison against the massive bulk of the giant walrus.
However sub adult Walrus and calf can become prey to a Polar Bear, the swipe of a Polar Bear paw is powerful and the bite force of a very large Polar bear is estimated to be 1800 psi.
