Humpback Whale Mysteriously Found In Amazon Forest

[maximus otter]

The jungles of South America are home to some of the richest biodiversity on the planet, however, it's not typically associated with whales.

The carcass of an 8-meter (26-foot) humpback whale was discovered last Friday in the mangrove forests of northern Brazil, according to a post by the Brazilian conservation group Bicho D'água.

The beached whale, believed to be just one year old, was found 15 meters (49 feet) from the river beach on Marajó Island, the world’s largest island produced by sediments deposited from a river. It’s likely that the humpback whale washed into the river mouth of the Amazon and was dumped on land as the tides pulled back.

They are known to migrate tens of thousands of kilometers each year, feeding in polar seas before moving to warmer waters to breed and give birth.

However, it is fairly unusual to find humpbacks in this area at this time of year. Therefore, it’s believed the young individual became separated from its pod during migration and eventually died as a result of stress.

https://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/humpback-whale-mysteriously-found-in-amazon-forest/

maximus otter

 

[EnolaGaia]

This doesn't appear to be all that weird to me. The young humpback carcass was found in a semi-aquatic mangrove forest that's subject to tidal flooding. These photos from the Brazilian conservation groups posting (cf. post #1) clearly show the mud flat through which the carcass floated before settling into its resting place.

 

[James_H]

It's a mangrove, which means it's an estuarine environment (i.e. brackish water, tidal, close to the sea). Like EnolaGaia says, not weird. Or not much weirder than a whale washing up on a beach.

 

[EnolaGaia]

Here's a more detailed explanation from someone affiliated with the aforementioned conservation group.

... The baby whale was likely lost at sea and died of starvation or some other unknown cause, according to nonprofit research group Bicho D'agua.

The tides washed the whale's body to shore at Araruna Beach in the city of Soure, said Bicho D'agua oceanographer Maura Sousa. It's located on the island of Marajó, which sits at the mouth of the Amazon River.

"During this season, the tide normally rises twice a day to almost 4 meters (13 feet) and floods the mangrove forest, bringing lots of trash, including trash from ships from a lot of places in the world," Sousa said.

"This explains why an inflated carcass, due to the gases of the decomposition, was dragged into the mangrove forest," she said.

SOURCE: https://www.cnn.com/2019/02/26/world/dead-humpback-whale-brazil-trnd/index.html