Specialists assume that Freya is on her approach again north, the place she belongs. However discovering her approach might show tough, as a result of Oslo Fjord, the place she was most not too long ago noticed, is a lifeless finish on the way in which north. To get residence, she first has to return south, all the way down to Denmark to cross over to Britain, earlier than going again north.
“She has to show round, and up to now, she hasn’t achieved so,” Mr. Aae stated. “She doesn’t have a map, she doesn’t understand it’s a lifeless finish.”
It’s not completely uncommon for a walrus to indicate up in northern Europe, and related incidents have occurred earlier than. Most years, at the very least one walrus will be noticed in European waters, stated Dan Jarvis, the director of welfare and conservation at British Divers Marine Life Rescue.
Final yr, one other walrus, Wally, confirmed up off the coast of southwest England for about six weeks and climbed up on boats in a busy space of the Isles of Scilly, an archipelago of greater than 150 islands. Native officers supplied him with a floating dock to lie on, as a result of he destroyed the boats along with his roughly 1,760-pound weight. There, too, individuals acquired too shut and took photos with him, inflicting probably harmful conditions and resulting in requires his removing.
“He was coming to the busiest potential place,” Mr. Jarvis stated.
There are roughly 225,000 walruses within the wild, in keeping with the World Extensive Fund for Nature. They stay in ice-covered waters in Canada, Greenland, Norway, Russia and Alaska. Of their regular habitat, walruses haul themselves onto sheets of ice. Within the case of Freya, she’s hauling herself onto piers and boats. Walruses are affected by local weather change within the type of melting ice sheets, which is inflicting them to lose a few of that habitat.
If that retains taking place, Mr. Jarvis stated, “they’re going to have to go looking additional to search out someplace appropriate.”