A group of travellers in the Arctic were astonished when a large herd of walruses came up to check them out.
The Arctic expedition tourists were on a small group trip in Torellneset, Svalbard, in June 2024 when they came across the curious creatures. In the footage, five of these large, tusked chubsters popped their heads above the water right next to the small tender boat.
"What struck me was how confident they were with us,” says Tristan Young, brand marketing manager at Secret Atlas. “We sat completely still and quiet – just twelve of us in the water – and the herd came right up to look at us rather than diving away.”
In some moments, the animals seemed to want to get closer to the boat. “A few of them kept jostling to get to the front, almost like they were showing off their tusks,” he says. “It looked genuinely playful.”
Although this was clearly a curious and confident group, Young believes it helped that their Zodiac was the only boat in the vicinity, adding: “It only worked because we were small enough and quiet enough not to matter to them.”
Top image credit: Secret Atlas
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