Walrus

Animal Series

by John Miller, Louise Miller

From Lewis Carroll’s poem “The Walrus and the Carpenter” to the Beatles’s “I am the Walrus,” walruses have played an enigmatic role in popular culture. With their prominent tusks and distinctive whiskers, these odd-looking but charismatic animals have long held a crucial place in the lives and folklore of Arctic indigenous cultures, both as a vital food source and as a part of traditional oral literature. However, commercial trade of walrus products has caused the creatures to be hunted to the brink of extinction, with disastrous effects on human populations in the Arctic.
 
Combining natural, cultural, and environmental history,  Walrus  explores the intriguing story of an animal that today is on the front lines of conservation debates. John Miller and Louise Miller describe the problems facing walruses even after the twentieth-century bans on nonindigenous walrus hunting―shrinking pack-ice caused by global warming and the exploitation of Arctic oil and gas resources are destroying the animal’s habitat. Wonderfully illustrated with images of walruses in the wild and from art and popular culture,  Walrus  offers a refreshing account of these large-flippered mammals while also illustrating the ethical dilemmas they embody, from the intensifying conflict between the developed world and indigenous interests to the impact of global warming on arctic animals.

224 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2014

About the author

John Miller is Senior Lecturer in Nineteenth-Century Literature at the University of Sheffield.

Reviews

[Leanne · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are not a lot of books about walruses. This was an outstanding introduction to the biology of the animals, as well as the way human societies have interacted with walruses, from hunters to the Beatles. They are truly fascinating animals and I enjoyed this book a lot.

[M Harris · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoy this series of books. The mix of biology, history, and culture is nice, though I wish more of the book was about the biology of the animal.