Expert: Expect more visits by walruses

titles like “This is where the walrus appears – in Smögen“,”Walrus visits outside Kungsbacka” And the “Here she visits Freya Walrus at the harbor in Oslo“Seen on feed recently.

Tom Arnbaum, lecturer in ecology and conservation expert at the World Wide Fund for Nature, says walruses and other Arctic mammals are swimming astray, a phenomenon that appears to be becoming more common.

It is always the small animals that move south, but they are usually solitary. This year there were at least three or four who went out for a walk. It’s hard to tell if there was any statistical difference, but there were unusually many animals this summer.

collapse is misleading

Why walruses are heading south, no one really knows, but that climate change is at play is a low-probability guess, according to Arnbaum.

– What is certainly affected by the climate is that the ice is disappearing in the Arctic, and the walruses live on the ice and on the ice. When molting, the walrus does not find a place to lie, and then swims in search of land and can completely err.

Beluga whales also live on ice and can also be misled by its absence. Perhaps this is the explanation for the existence of such a sample Aim at the Seine Near the French capital, Paris, this week.

– Arnbaum says they aren’t supposed to be there.

The walrus longs for home

Back to the walrus. How well is it adapted to the climate in the North North region?

Walruses contain a lot of fat, so they thrive best in cold water. They can handle heat for a short time but in the long run it becomes a problem for them. The fact that those found here were skinny not because they lacked food, but because they were stressed by the heat.

In addition, the walrus is a herd animal that longs to return to the colony when it is gone. However, Arnbom believes that walruses and other exotic species will continue to find their way south.

– Walruses are growing slowly in the Atlantic, so we will likely get more visits in the future. We will definitely see more species of dolphins that we don’t usually see here. Their number has already increased, and this is because they follow new species of fish that come here.

Arnbom stresses that the impact of these adventurous animals on Swedish flora and fauna is unknown, but when the ecosystem is disturbed, things can happen on a large scale.