Who is Freya? Let’s see where she is right now

• A female walrus named Freya has become a star in Norway.
• She eats, sleeps and smashes small boats.
• Walruses can be harmful if approached too closely.

Who’s Freya? A juvenile female walrus has become a summer star in Norway by grazing in harbours and smashing small boats.

Norway has been captivated by the marine creature, who is now known solely by her first name.

“Freya is back in Oslo,” one local media outlet reported of the celebrity sighting. “Freya found in Snarøykilen in Baerum,” another said. Updates are almost daily: “Freya is fine — Keep your distance!”

Norwegians have flocked to watch the walrus eat, sunbathe and — mostly — sleep on boats for days or weeks at a time in harbours along the country’s southeastern coastline. But the boats can’t always support her weight, which Norway’s Directorate of Fisheries estimates is around 1,300 pounds.

Even the sturdiest vessel tips as she boards, and her favourite rigid inflatable boats, which are easiest to board, eventually collapse.

A lone walrus in Oslo’s Frognerkilen harbour, 1,200 miles from Svalbard, where she may be from, is an extraordinary sight.

Freya chooses empty boats to sleep and digest her meals because they resemble Arctic ice floes, a veterinary medicine scientist said.

Ryeng advises the Directorate of Fisheries on how to keep Freya, the people, and their property safe. He suggests giving Freya a wide berth and parking vessels so she can’t climb into them. Walruses are only harmful if approached too closely, especially in the sea.

“These animals are like potato sacks on a floating device, but like acrobats in water,” she said.

Freya’s antics haven’t hurt anyone, but they’re frustrating emergency services and boat owners.

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