The appearance of a dead hump back whale in the Amazonian jungle has experts scratching their heads
Brazilian authorities have been handed a a curious mystery with the discovery of an impressive 10 ton (approx 10,000kg) , 36 feet (almost 11meters) long humpback whale in the Amazon forest. Found after scavenger and carrion birds were seen gathering in the area of Marajo Island near the mouth of the Amazon river, the gruesome discovery has marine biologists at a loss to explain what happened. The carcass was 50 feet from the shore line which confounded experts further, who then expressed bewilderment as to why the animal was in the region at all, as they are normally not found in these parts of the Atlantic at this time of year.
The whale was estimated to be a calf of about one year old and possibly got separated from it's mother and driven ashore in a recent storm surge.
Biologists have taken samples to assist in determining the cause of death but the carcass itself is in too remote a location and is too large to be removed so the decision has been made to allow nature to take it's course before removing the skeleton and putting it on display at a museum.
As bizarre a story as this sounds, as recent as November 2007 a Minke whale beached on an Amazonian sandbank an extraordinary 1,000 miles from the ocean. Despite extraordinary efforts to rescue the creature it was spotted dead just a few days later.
