The Arctic walrus Stena, which is a female, has in recent days made a dramatic journey along the coast of the Gulf of Finland. Following an official decision, the animal tried to be moved to Högholmen Zoo in Helsinki, but was unable to travel.
Dramatic journey
The walrus first became visible in Fredrikshamn where it spent the night on a beach last Friday. A couple of days later, it got stuck in a Russian in the fishing waters outside the city of Kotka and in the tumult that followed, it overturned the fisherman’s boat, reports Swedish Yle.
Then Stena swam up a river to finally climb up to a house 150 meters inland.
– I wondered what was rattling in my drying rack. I joked that it must be the walrus from Fredrikshamn, says the homeowner Jukka Hovila to Ilta-Sanomat.
Died during the journey
The rescue service tried to get the walrus to move towards the river, which it refused to do. In the end, veterinarians managed to put Stena to sleep and transport her in a box to Högholmen Zoo in Helsinki.
Veterinarians have found that the walrus is starving and in poor condition and may need to be killed. Walruses are found in Finland is very unusual. They usually live in the Arctic, but have in some rare cases been found on, for example, the west coast of Sweden.
During the night until Wednesday announced https://twitter.com/Korkeasaari/status/1549509904972582912?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1549509904972582912%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.hbl.fi%2Fartikel%2F39c256f0-ca6e-44be-957f-d54a48ba75b1 that the transport failed and that Stena died during it.
“The trials of the last few days and the transport became too much for the weakened animal and it died on the way. Thanks to everyone who helped!”, Writes the zoo.
