A rare visitor to Danish waters beached himself on the Jutland coast, but experts say the animal is in bad shape and needs to be destroyed

An Arctic walrus has been found on a Danish beach for the first time since 1999 and experts feared it would have to be put down due to its poor condition.

The Danish Forestry and Nature Agency sent an employee out to investigate the live walrus find near the town of Fjand on the west coast of Jutland on Friday, but things were not looking good.

‘The walrus is lying around apathetically on the beach and has wounds to both the head and body so it’s best to put him down,’ said the agency’s Jens-Henrik Jakobsen who has examined the animal.

He estimates the creature to weigh between 350 and 500kg and is at least 2m long with tusks of up to 15cm in length, signalling that it is a juvenile as adult walruses can grow up to 3m in length and weigh up to a tonne.

But whether the walrus was just taking a breather or got wind of the agency’s plans is not known, but he decided to take off again late Saturday night.

The Arctic walrus is typically found in the cold climes of northern Norway, Greenland and Siberia and has only visited Denmark on occasion.

The agency reports that in recent years only two cases have occurred of live walruses ending up on the Danish coast – in Hirtshals, north Jutland in 1999 and near Løkken on the west Jutland coast in 1982.