The inhabitants of Scarborough (England) were deprived of fireworks on the evening of December 31, reports The Huffington Post. The city council has, in fact, decided to cancel the event on the advice of the British Divers Marine Life Rescue, an association for the protection of marine mammals. The reason ? He didn’t want to take the risk of frightening the walrus that had taken up residence the day before in the port of this town.
“We are really disappointed to have had to cancel the fireworks, but the well-being of the walruses must come first”, explains the leader of the Council, Steve Siddons, in the columns of the Guardian. The animal could have been frightened by the sounds of detonations or the flashes of light. Named Thor, this large marine mammal has already been sighted near the Hampshire coast in early December. “This is incredibly rare for the UK and never seen before locally,” a local radio station said on Twitter.
If this species usually lives around the North Pole, some isolated individuals sometimes descend to the level of the British Isles. When Thor arrived in Scarborough, security cordons were put in place and instructions were given to the inhabitants in order to preserve this protected species. Neither sick nor injured, the animal only stopped in Scarborough to take a break before continuing its journey. He finally went back to sea on Sunday, according to The Guardian.