Walruses in Svalbard, Norway Sep 30, 2024

Walruses in Svalbard, Norway

What"s the perfect thing to do under the midnight sun? If you"re a walrus like the ones in today"s image, the answer might be taking a quick dip with your crew, chowing down on clams and mussels and then sunbathing on a beach or ice floe. Welcome to Svalbard, an archipelago in the Arctic Ocean halfway between Norway and the North Pole. Photographed in the waters off Spitsbergen, the largest of the archipelago"s nine islands, these aquatic mammals are year-round residents that are often found in male or female herds. Male walruses can be almost 3-metres long and weigh more than 1,179 kilograms, and during mating season, they use this girth to fight among themselves for dominance over groups of females, called harems.

© AWL Images/DanitaDelimont

palette

Today in History

Giants of the Southern Ocean
Sep 30, 2023Shenandoah National Park, Virginia
Sep 30, 2025Koala in the Great Otway National Park, Australia

More Desktop Wallpapers:

King of the jungle? Nope
Feb 24, 2024Almond trees in full bloom, California, USA
Oct 1, 2024Yosemite National Park, California, USA
Oct 18, 2023Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge, Alaska
Mar 19, 2025A black heron canopy hunting in Botswana
Dec 21, 2023Ljubljana, Slovenia
May 22, 2024International Day for Biological Diversity
Jun 3, 2025World Bicycle Day
Nothing says ‘San Francisco’ quite like...
May 6, 2025An ultralight aircraft flying over the sands of Namibia
Nature’s own canvas
We’ve identified these ‘flying objects’
Nov 7, 2024Vancouver Coastal Sea wolves in the Great Bear Rainforest, Canada
Sep 15, 2025Black-winged stilts, France
Apr 27, 2024Leucistic Annas Hummingbird
Dec 7, 2023Verdon Gorge, France
Jul 10, 2024Collared aracari
A breathtaking cave when it’s cold
Huddled and hunting
Feb 6, 2025Scottish Blackface sheep, Aberdeenshire, Scotland
Sep 26, 2023Venice Skatepark, Los Angeles, California
Mar 5, 2025Khao Sok National Park in Thailand
The envy of postcards and snowglobes
Stunning symmetry
Jan 8, 2024Bernina Pass, Graubunden, Switzerland
Jun 18, 2025Asian swallowtail butterfly on a red spider lily
Aug 21, 2024Nazca boobies, Wolf Island, Galápagos Islands, Ecuador
Feb 17, 2025Fatehpur Sikri, Agra, Uttar Pradesh
Feb 12, 2025Ashoka pillar, Kutagarasala Vihara, Vaishali, Bihar
Mar 2, 2024Modica, Sicily, Italy