Wal­rus shot in Nor­way

First of all: Hap­py New Year to all visi­tors to this site! Unfort­u­na­te­ly, the first news for 2013 are sad ones: A wal­rus that show­ed up as a sur­pri­se guest in Dala­buk­ta near Kris­ti­an­sund, west of Trond­heim on the coast of Nor­way, was shot by the aut­ho­ri­ties after a few hours. The reason was said to be the bad health sta­tus of the ani­mal.

Accor­ding to wit­nesses, the wal­rus was in good con­di­ti­on regar­ding at least the nut­ri­ti­on sta­tus. As far as can be seen on pho­tos, the ani­mals seems to have been in good shape. Small inju­ries inclu­ding bro­ken tusks are nor­mal for wal­rus­ses. The decis­i­on to shoot the ani­mal, taken within a very few hours and wit­hout con­sul­ting experts, is met with sub­stan­ti­al cri­ti­cism and has now been repor­ted to the poli­ce. Wal­rus­ses are pro­tec­ted sin­ce 1953.

It is quite rare, but not unhe­ard of, that indi­vi­du­al wal­rus­ses take long trips from their high arc­tic home waters south to the coasts of Nor­way or even Den­mark or Spain during win­ter.

Source: Tidens Krav (seve­ral artic­les) and other Nor­we­gi­an online media.

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