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First Confirmed Sighting Of A Walrus In Ireland For More Than 15 Years

First Confirmed Sighting Of A Walrus In Ireland For More Than 15 Years

A marine biologist thinks the walrus may have 'fallen asleep' on an iceberg and drifted away

Claire Reid

Claire Reid

A walrus has been spotted miles from home on the shore in Ireland, marking the country's first confirmed sighting of one of the animals in 17 years.

The walrus was seen on Valentia Island in Kerry, with one islander saying the poor animal looked 'really confused'.

A possible explanation for that comes courtesy of marine biologist Kevin Flannery, who reckons the walrus 'could have fallen asleep on an iceberg before being carried across the Atlantic ocean'.

So no wonder he's looking a little bit disoriented.

Resident Aisling Quigley, who recorded this footage, said the animal looked 'really tired' and 'really confused as to where he was'.

Fellow islander, Alan Houlihan, was out walking with his five-year-old daughter Muireann when he also stumbled across the 'huge' walrus.

Houlihan told the Independent.ie: "He's huge, he's about the size of a bull or a cow.

"Myself and my daughter were out walking on the beach down near the lighthouse.

"He breached out of the water onto the rocks and gave us a bit of a show.

Storyful

"I thought it was a seal at first and then we saw the tusks. He kind of jumped up on the rocks. He was massive.

"He was about the size of a bull or a cow, pretty similar in size. He's big, big."

There have been previous sightings of walruses in Ireland, according to the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group, but this is the first confirmed sighting since 1999.

The IWDG shared Houlihan's video online, writing: "Given the size of this specimen, which Alan estimates was at least 2m, and the presence of tusks, we can say with some confidence that it is a young adult specimen, however it's not possible to determine gender as both males and females have tusks.

"This is only the third recent IWDG validated record of this Arctic pinniped, although there are likely to be other sighting records that were not reported to IWDG, whose focus is on cetaceans (whales, dolphins and porpoises).

Storyful

"The National Biodiversity Data Centre has 11 walrus records but the Natural History Museum suggest this number may be as high as 20 going back over several centuries. Either way walrus sightings here are extremely rare.

"Previous walrus sightings validated by IWDG are from 3rd April 1999, near Old Head, Clew Bay, Co. Mayo and Oct. 5th 2004 from Mulranny also in Clew Bay.

"In mid February a walrus was photographed off the Danish coast and comparisons of images leave open the possibility that they may be the same individual."

Featured Image Credit: Storyful

Topics: Interesting, Animals