A walrus has apparently been seen on the North Sea island of Baltrum.

The Arctic inhabitant was on Tuesday morning on a wide groyne -


a coastal protection system - on the western tip of the island in Lower Saxony's Wadden Sea, reported dune and bird warden Heinz Ideus.

"I didn't even believe it when a Baltrumer drew my attention to it," he told the German press agency.

He made sure that the walrus could lie there in peace and that no one came too close.

At first it seemed tired, but in the meantime the animal had "swam away a bit".

The community switched on the seal rearing station Norddeich.

There they exchanged ideas with European colleagues and discovered that the walrus was probably last sighted in Denmark.

According to Tim Fetting, chief animal keeper at the hatchery, no walrus has been seen in the southern North Sea since 1998.

At that time an animal appeared on the island of Juist.

In March, a walrus was seen on the coast of the British province of Wales and on the west coast of Ireland.

In the spring, biologists assumed that it was the same animal - possibly stranded on an ice floe.

The walruses, which are up to 3.5 meters long and weigh up to 1,000 kilograms, actually live around the North Pole. They are considered to be an endangered species. According to conservationists, the melting ice in the Arctic is particularly hard on the predators with the distinctive tusks due to climate change. According to the administration, nothing is known about the health of the walrus on the smallest East Frisian island of Baltrum.