Creature Feature: 10,000 Walruses

This picture [courtesy of NOAA] is remarkable for several reasons. It shows 10,000 or more walruses jammed onto a narrow beach of an Alaskan barrier island. A variation of the chicken and road question is: why would 10,000 walruses haul out on the same island and risk death from stampede, aggression, and suffocation? The answer is simple as it is tragic. They have no where else to go. Without ice floes to use for resting and escaping predators, they are forced to use a shoreline isolated from humans.  The photograph is also another piece of documentary evidence of global warming.  Don't believe your eyes?  Click to enlarge.