Sometimes walruses 'haul out', either onto rocky shores or ice floes. Quite often, they use their tusks like ice axes to help them get a better grip as they climb out of the water.
On land walruses are clumsy. Their feet have been flattened into flippers and, when on land, they turn their back limbs forward so that they can lumber along on all fours. The bottoms of their flippers are warty to allow them to grip ice better. In water, the hind limbs act as the walrus's propellers, while the forelimbs are used as rudders.
In the Arctic winter, walruses head south. Unlike seals, they are unable to survive under pack ice because they cannot make holes in the ice to breathe through. When spring comes, the cows and immature animals head back north, but adult males linger in the south for longer.
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