Sir, – Your article on the walrus currently off the coast of Cork states that after leaving Valentia Island the walrus was "later spotted in Wales before resurfacing when it hauled itself into a boat off Ardmore" ("People urged not to approach walrus spotted off Co Cork coast", News, August 10th).
In fact, the walrus has travelled further. In May this year, he was spotted in Cornwall, Brittany and La Rochelle; in June he was seen in Bilbao and Santander, before spending some time recently in the Isles of Scilly.
You further quote Dr. Emer Rogan, who said: “[It’s] difficult to say whether this animal is a male or a female.”
Photographs from Les Sables-d’Olonne have allowed citizen-scientists to identify the walrus as male.
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I should also note that while in Wales he was nicknamed Wally. – Yours, etc,
CLAIRE O’TOOLE,
Dublin 24.