The postcard of the walrus ‘Antje’ at Hamburg Zoo that has recently been added to the gallery, prompted me to load my photograph of her in the Hamburg University Zoology Museum.
And here she is! She was lovely, I remember her so well from my visits in 1991 and 1995. The first walrus I ever saw!
The first walrus I ever saw was “Alice” in the elephant’s bathing pool inside the Elephant & Rhino Pavilion at London Zoo. I too saw “Antje” several times Hamburg Zoo; unusually for a zoo walrus, she had impressive tusks. Unfortunately, I didn’t get a good photograph of “Antje” while she was alive. Incidentally, if anybody goes to Hamburg to visit the zoo and has a spare afternoon, the Zoology Museum is very interesting and well worth a visit too.
Yes, the walrus ‘Alice’ has been mentioned on various other threads. In summary, 'Alice' was purchased as a youngster in 1966; the elephant bathing pool was only intended as temporary accommodation for her. Sadly she did not live long; the ZSL Annual Report for 1967 states that she died “as the result of an accident” but gives no further details.
@Tim May Thankyou Tim. I didn't know how to find that fact myself. I must have seen Walrus there as well as the one in London Zoo- though I can't recollect either.
@Pertinax I've seen very few walruses: only at London (1966/67); Hannover (late 1980s) and, more recently Hamburg and Harderwijk.