All species / Odobenus rosmarus
Odobenus rosmarus
Walrus · (Linnaeus, 1758)
- Red List, global
- VU
- Vulnerable, 2025
- First CITES listing
- III
- Appendix III, 1975, by Canada
- CITES trade records
- 19,273
- 1975–2023 · exporter-reported
- Unit dimensions
- 5
- reported separately, never summed
- NAMMCO catch entries
- 99
- catch records
- Seizure records
- 33
- reported taxon matches
One of 43: each square a species, coloured by its latest global Red List category, this one ringed. Atlantic Walrus is among the other mammals.
In summary derived
Odobenus rosmarus, Walrus, is placed in family Odobenidae, order Carnivora, class Mammalia. The earliest CITES listing row the corpus holds for it is Appendix III, dated 1975. The corpus records 1 dated listing row in total.
Its latest global Red List assessment is Vulnerable, published 2025. It carries 3 earlier global assessments on the current scale and 1 on a scale that was superseded before the current categories and cannot be compared with them.
The corpus holds 19,273 exporter-reported CITES trade records for it, from 1975 to 2023, reported across 5 unit dimensions. The most frequently recorded term is carvings: 11,591 records across 5 unit dimensions, of which 10,178 are measured in specimens. NAMMCO records 99 catch entries, from 1994 to 2023, totalling 6,233 animals reported by NAMMCO member countries, counting each year's area reports, or its national total where the year reports no area. Attribution is by the taxon name each report gave. 33 seizure records are attributed to it, being those whose reported taxon matches the species.
Composed from 17 corpus fields, by template, with no model
species.classspecies.familyspecies.order_namespecies_catch.catch_totalspecies_catch.yearspecies_iucn.is_globalspecies_iucn.statusspecies_iucn.year_publishedspecies_listing.appendixspecies_listing.listing_datespecies_seizure.*species_trade.dimensionspecies_trade.first_yearspecies_trade.last_yearspecies_trade.record_countspecies_trade.reporter_typespecies_trade.term
Each sentence is generated from the columns above and nothing else. The same corpus produces the same text every time. Where a field is absent the sentence is omitted rather than hedged.
Overview curated
Taxonomy entered by a named curator and versioned in the repository.
- Class
- Mammalia
- Order
- Carnivora
- Family
- Odobenidae
- First CITES listing
- 1975
- Global Red List status
- VUVulnerable, assessed 2025
8 narrative sections for this species were machine-drafted and are not shown. No subject expert has reviewed and signed them.
Trade derived
CITES Trade Database v2025.1, extracted 13 June 2025.
Quantities are reported per unit dimension, per traded term, and per reporting side. These are not additive: kilograms and individual animals have no common unit, a live animal is not a carving, and an importer report and an exporter report are two accounts of one shipment rather than two shipments.
Figures below are exporter-reported.
- count in specimens
- 17,592 records, 91%
- packaging in containers
- 1,287 records, 7%
- mass in kg
- 388 records, 2%
- volume in L
- 4 records, <1%
- length in m
- 2 records, <1%
Records per dimension. Not additive across units.
Trade over time
count measured in specimens
17,592 of 19,273 records carry a quantity in specimens. CITES leaves the unit blank to mean a count of the term.
| Term | Quantity | Records | Years | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| carvings | 336,799 specimens | 8,803 | 1985– | W |
| tusks | 6,198 specimens | 2,125 | 1985– | W |
| skulls | 1,294 specimens | 1,144 | 1985– | W |
| bones | 2,279 specimens | 1,065 | 1985– | W |
| carvings | 6,322.33 specimens † | 1,030 | 1990– | O |
| teeth | 3,259 specimens | 903 | 1985– | W |
| bone carvings | 1,508 specimens | 370 | 1995– | W |
| ivory carvings | 1,553 specimens | 326 | 2007– | O |
| carvings | 910 specimens | 178 | 1990– | U |
| carvings | 2,426 specimens | 153 | 1975– | not recorded |
| tusks | 1,530 specimens | 152 | 1992– | O |
| ivory carvings | 63,820 specimens | 133 | 2007– | W |
Showing the 12 term and source combinations with the most records, of 96.
† Not a whole number. A count cannot have a fraction, so some records under carvings carry a quantity with its unit left blank that is not a count, most likely a weight or a measure. The total is shown as the Parties reported it.
packaging measured in containers
1,287 of 19,273 records carry a quantity in containers.
| Term | Quantity | Records | Years | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| carvings | 1,615 containers | 1,263 | 1987– | W |
| bones | 10 containers | 10 | 2001– | W |
| tusks | 6 containers | 6 | 1998 | W |
| carvings | 36 containers | 5 | 1980– | not recorded |
| carvings | 1 container | 1 | 2005 | O |
| skins | 1 container | 1 | 1998 | W |
| specimens | 2 containers | 1 | 1993 | W |
mass measured in kg
388 of 19,273 records carry a quantity in kg.
| Term | Quantity | Records | Years | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| carvings | 3,341.74 kg | 102 | 1994– | W |
| tusks | 2,855.27 kg | 63 | 1990– | W |
| tusks | 2,032.85 kg | 37 | 1990– | O |
| carvings | 932.72 kg | 33 | 1991– | O |
| tusks | 4,772.44 kg | 19 | 1983– | not recorded |
| ivory pieces | 1,007.84 kg | 19 | 2007– | O |
| teeth | 425.69 kg | 13 | 1994– | W |
| bone carvings | 660.26 kg | 13 | 1994– | W |
| specimens | 199.09 kg | 13 | 1999– | W |
| ivory pieces | 196.96 kg | 12 | 2010– | W |
| skulls | 73.3 kg | 12 | 2018– | W |
| bones | 4,724.64 kg | 11 | 1999– | W |
Showing the 12 term and source combinations with the most records, of 28.
2 smaller units: L (4 records), m (2 records)
volume measured in L
4 of 19,273 records carry a quantity in L.
| Term | Quantity | Records | Years | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| carvings | 100 L | 2 | 2012 | O |
| derivatives | 0.03 L | 1 | 2013 | W |
| specimens | 0.00100 L | 1 | 2023 | W |
length measured in m
2 of 19,273 records carry a quantity in m.
| Term | Quantity | Records | Years | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| carvings | 0.18 m | 2 | 2017 | O |
CITES listings curated
CoP decisions, cross-checked against the appendix reported on trade records.
| Date | Appendix | Annotation | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1975-11-16 | III | none | first listing |
IUCN Red List derived
Assessment history. Scope is always stated: a regional assessment is not the species status.
Categories from before 2001 come from earlier Red List systems. Three kinds are kept apart.
LR/lc and LR/nt are the modern LC and NT under their old names, so they are plotted as those categories and the line runs through them: nothing changed but the wording.
LR/cd was discontinued with no successor. This project reads it as Near Threatened, following a published crosswalk between the old and new Red List systems, and the chart marks such a point hollow and names both codes, because placing a category is not the same as finding it published.
The pre-1994 codes (E, V, K, T and the rest) are not on the risk order at all, so they sit below the axis and the line breaks across them. A category change across a criteria revision is not a change in extinction risk, and none of these is scored as a movement: the ledger refuses every one of them at gate 3.
- published global assessment
- not on this scale (below the axis)
- regional assessment, never joined
Category movement since listing: not scored. Gate 3: the baseline category LR/lc comes from a pre-2001 Red List system and is not on the modern ordinal scale. How this is defined and why some species are not scored
| Year | Category | Meaning | Scope | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | VU | Vulnerable | Global | current for this scope |
| 2025 | NT | Near Threatened | Global | |
| 2016 | VU | Vulnerable | Global | |
| 2008 | DD | Data Deficient | Global | |
| 2007 | NA | Not assessed | Europe (scope corrected) | |
| 1996 | LR/lc | Lower Risk, least concern (1994 system) | Global |
Reported catch derived
NAMMCO catch exports dated 11 June 2025. A reported zero is stored as zero, distinct from an unknown.
| Year | Area | Catch | Quota |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | Baffin Bay | 57 | 158 |
| 2023 | East Greenland | 17 | 28 |
| 2023 | West Greenland-Southeast Baffin Bay (WGSBI) | 75 | 119 |
| 2022 | Baffin Bay | 55 | 158 |
| 2022 | East Greenland | 6 | 34 |
| 2022 | West Greenland-Southeast Baffin Bay (WGSBI) | 63 | 109 |
| 2021 | Baffin Bay | 48 | 158 |
| 2021 | East Greenland | 12 | 34 |
| 2021 | West Greenland | 67 | 102 |
| 2020 | Baffin Bay | 21 | 164 |
| 2020 | East Greenland | 8 | 36 |
| 2020 | Total | 104 | 303 |
| 2020 | West Greenland-Southeast Baffin Bay | 75 | 103 |
| 2019 | East | 7 | 18 |
| 2019 | Northwater | 46 | 85 |
| 2019 | Total | 114 | 172 |
| 2019 | West | 61 | 69 |
| 2018 | East | 10 | 18 |
| 2018 | Northwater | 34 | 85 |
| 2018 | Total | 98 | 172 |
| 2018 | West | 54 | 69 |
| 2017 | East | 3 | 18 |
| 2017 | Northwater | 73 | 85 |
| 2017 | Total | 111 | 172 |
| 2017 | West | 35 | 69 |
| 2016 | East | 9 | 18 |
| 2016 | Northwater | 74 | 86 |
| 2016 | Total | 135 | 173 |
| 2016 | West | 52 | 69 |
| 2015 | East | 4 | 18 |
| 2015 | Northwater | 74 | 83 |
| 2015 | Total | 131 | 170 |
| 2015 | West | 53 | 69 |
| 2014 | East | 8 | 18 |
| 2014 | Northwater | 67 | 61 |
| 2014 | Total | 127 | 140 |
| 2014 | West | 52 | 61 |
| 2013 | East | 8 | 18 |
| 2013 | Northwater | 65 | 62 |
| 2013 | Total | 120 | 140 |
A row whose area is a total is NAMMCO's own aggregate of that year's areas, not an area to add to them.
Showing 40 of 99 records.
Illegal trade seizures derived
Seizure records whose reported taxon resolves to this species.
33 seizure records name this species. Matching is on the taxon the source reported, case aside, and each record below shows the reported name, so a match that is not literal can be seen for what it is. Across the whole compilation, 225 of 919 rows match one of the 43 species and the rest name other taxa.
Quantities are unitless. The source gives no date or place, so the table shows the product and the reported taxon.
| Product | Reported as |
|---|---|
| bone | Odobenus rosmarus |
| bone | odobenus rosmarus |
| bone carving | Odobenus rosmarus |
| bone piece | Odobenus rosmarus |
| bone product | odobenus rosmarus |
| carving | odobenus rosmarus |
| carving | Odobenus rosmarus |
| derivative | Odobenus rosmarus |
| genitalia | Odobenus rosmarus |
| genitalia | odobenus rosmarus |
| hair | Odobenus rosmarus |
| hair product | Odobenus rosmarus |
| hair product | odobenus rosmarus |
| horn carving | odobenus rosmarus |
| ivory carvings | Odobenus rosmarus |
| ivory carvings | odobenus rosmarus |
| ivory jewellery | odobenus rosmarus |
| ivory jewellery | Odobenus rosmarus |
| ivory piece | Odobenus rosmarus |
| ivory piece | odobenus rosmarus |
| jewellery | odobenus rosmarus |
| live | Odobenus rosmarus |
| medicine | odobenus rosmarus |
| medicine | Odobenus rosmarus |
| small leather product | Odobenus rosmarus |
| tooth | Odobenus rosmarus |
| tooth | odobenus rosmarus |
| tooth | Odobenus rosmarus |
| trimming | odobenus rosmarus |
| tusk | odobenus rosmarus |
| tusk | Odobenus rosmarus |
| tusk | Odobenus rosmarus |
| unspecified | odobenus rosmarus |
References withheld
Machine-proposed bindings. Shown only where an expert has signed the profile and the binding is live.
No references are recorded for this species: none is shown, and none was machine-proposed for review.
Timeline curated
Curated events. Those with no corroborating table in this database are marked.
| Date | Event | Type | Corroboration |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025-01-27 | EU Decision: Suspension (b) | eu_decision | curated |
| 2025 | IUCN Red List Assessment (2025) | iucn_assessment | checked against iucn_assessments |
| 2018-06-15 | CITES Trade: jewellery - ivory | cites_trade | checked against cites_trade_records |
| 2016 | IUCN Red List Assessment (2016) | iucn_assessment | checked against iucn_assessments |
| 2008-12-02 | EU Decision: Positive | eu_decision | curated |
| 2008 | IUCN Red List Assessment (2008) | iucn_assessment | checked against iucn_assessments |
| 2007 | IUCN Red List Assessment (2007) | iucn_assessment | checked against iucn_assessments |
| 1996 | IUCN Red List Assessment (1996) | iucn_assessment | checked against iucn_assessments |
| 1975-11-16 | Listed in CITES Appendix III | cites_listing | checked against cites_listings |
Events marked curated are not matched by a row in a corroborating table, either because none applies or because the table holds no such row, and rest on the curator alone. They are shown, and marked, rather than presented as equivalent to a table-checked fact.