Marine experts have been left baffled by the discovery of a dead humpback whale in the Amazon rainforest earlier this year, the Independent reports. The giant carcass was found in the undergrowth of Araruna Beach, in the Brazilian city of Soure.
Dirlene Silva from the Brazilian environmental, health, and sanitation department (SEMMA) told Brazilian news site O Liberal that they discovered the creature due to the vultures "spotted circling above the carcass which was found hidden in the bush some distance from the sea".
Check out the extraordinary footage of the dead humpback whale being discovered by a team of scientists in the Amazon rainforest:The young whale, which measured at eight meters (26 feet) from head to tail, was estimated by Bicho D’água Institute in a post on Instagram to be about a year old. Fully grown humpback whales can grow to twice the size.
The scientists are still not sure how the creature ended up in the Amazon rainforest.
“We believe this is a calf which may have been traveling with its mother and probably got lost or separated during the migratory cycle,” Renata Emin, a marine mammal expert with Bicho D'água, told O Liberal.
"We're still not sure how it landed here, but we're guessing that the creature was floating close to the shore and the tide, which has been pretty considerable over the past few days, picked it up and threw it inland, into the mangrove," she continued.
This is the touching moment a huge 50,000-pound humpback whale protects a marine biologist from a nearby shark:According to Emin, sightings of humpback whales in northern Brazil are uncommon at this time of year. Southern Hemisphere humpbacks typically spend February feeding in warmer polar waters.
A humpback whale astonishes 7 Hawaiian canoe paddlers in Brazil by breaching right in front of them:
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