Wild animals in a human environment often lead to accidents. This time the unfortunate is the walrus Freya, who was put to death by authorities in Norway on Sunday morning. The animal would have been too great a danger to people, according to the Norwegian government agency for fisheries.
Normally, walruses live in the Arctic. Freya is probably known in the Netherlands from a photo in which she rest on the deck of the submarine Zr.Ms. Dolphin and through visits to the harbors of Den Helder, Harlingen, Terschelling and Schiermonnikoog – wandering south in a search for food. In Norway she regularly slept in moored sloops in the Oslofjord; sometimes she brought sink a boat.
Debt question
In the reactions to her death, many people want to know why it was necessary. This touches on a broader question: who is to blame when things go wrong between humans and animals? Some point to the Norwegian authorities, who allegedly killed the animal unnecessarily.
In turn, the Norwegian fisheries authority blames ‘the people’, more specifically the people who, out of curiosity, often stood so close to the animal weighing more than six hundred kilos that Freya became stressed. Director Frank Bakke-Jensen of the service: “We understand that this decision may cause reactions from the public, but I am convinced that it was the right decision. The welfare of animals is important to us, but human life and safety must come first.”
Given her death sentence, the animal was ultimately identified as the real culprit. This is more common, also in the Netherlands. For example, Staatsbosbeheer had 22 Konik horses from the Lauwersmeer area slaughtered two years ago because they were too intrusive towards walkers and cyclists. The last straw, a forester told RTV Noord, was that one of the stallions had nibbled on a bicycle bag. The chimpanzees Mike (55) and Karibuna (20) also had to pay for their escape from Amersfoort Zoo in the same year. Justly, a commission of inquiry ruled a year later.
What Freya, in any case, was not to blame is the steady disappearance of its habitat due to global warming. Ten years ago, the US Geological Survey (USGS) observed that walruses are looking for food closer to the coast due to the melting sea ice and are coming ashore en masse.
But it is also not an unambiguous story of the species as a victim of global warming, says seal expert Sophie Brasseur of Wageningen University & Research. “Man nearly wiped out the walrus. Since the ban on hunting in the 1950s, the species has been recovering. But at the same time, their habitat is decreasing, causing them to move south more often.”
Brasseur, who received two jars of Freya’s feces from the Dutch navy to study her diet, hopes that policies will be developed to prevent the killing of wandering walruses. Brasseur: “We can hardly kill every walrus that comes this way. Maybe we can set up an international team to move walruses. Or a team that keeps people away from them.”
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