Nowadays, walrus seldomly wander into the North Sea. They used to be quite common there, but were supposedly elbowed out by modern humanity some 2000 years ago.
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All in all, there just eight walrus visits to the Dutch coast have been recorded. Most of those walrus were healthy males. Our last visitor, nicknamed "Gompie" (the name of a walrus puppet in an old Dutch television series), arrived on 21 January 1998. This perfectly fit crowd pleaser left the next day, heading north.
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I've listed all walrus observations so far in the table at the bottom of this column.
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Gompie
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![1926](images/redeke.jpg)
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1926
In 1926, a wandering male walrus was seen near the Shetlands, from where it swam to the south coast of Norway. During 11-14 November, it visited Den Helder, Holland, and was photographed (above) by the Dutch biologist REDEKE.
The animal was spotted next near Denmark, but driven away by rifle-shots, as it had been everywhere else. It was finally "collected" by the Swedish and is now, probably stuffed, in possesion of the Natural History Museum, Göteborg.
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