Scottish residents discovered the presence of a rare northerly visitor at the weekend. Thirty-two-year-old birdwatcher Mark Warren from Orkney came across the massive mammal at a beach in North Ronaldsay on Saturday 3 March. But when he told his 28-year-old wife Fleur that he had just spotted a walrus, she had a hard time believing him.
According to a report published by the UK news agency the Daily Record, there haven’t been any Walrus sightings in the region for more than two-and-a-half decades.
Mrs Warren tod the paper, “I thought Mark was joking at first. It’s just amazing that he has turned up here. He seems happy enough and gives out a grunt. We would not like to get too close, because even though he’s young, he’s still a big animal.”
Experts say the visitor is a young male thought to have made its way all the way from Greenland.
“I would guess he is about eight or nine years and ready to breed,” said Ross Flett from Orkney Seal Rescue.
However, he added, “I doubt he will find love here. It’s bad enough for humans on North Ronaldsay. There’s only about 70 people on the island – and now one lonely walrus too. It may be the search for a mate brought him here but he is certainly disorientated and off course.”
The last confirmed sighting of a Walrus on in the area was in 1986, when a walrus managed to end up on a shore in Eynhallow.