Sad end to stranded baby whale
A juvenile minke whale got stuck in the River Thames and freed on the night of Sunday, May 9.
Following its rescue the animal was later found beached against a river wall and had to be put down after vets found its condition was “rapidly deteriorating”.
The whale was then loaded onto a truck at Teddington lifeboat station and taken to Whipsnade Zoo for post-mortem tests, the results of which are not expected for a few weeks.
Rob Deaville, who took part in the tests, said the whale was thought to be about two years old and was likely still dependent on its mother.
The juvenile female minke was first stranded on Richmond Lock’s boat rollers.
Crew from the Royal National Lifeboat Institute (RNLI) worked late into the evening to free the 4.2m-long whale and managed to move it. But the mammal escaped and was later seen swimming between Richmond and Teddington on Monday morning before becoming stuck once again.
A vet from the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) administered the injection to put it down after it became stranded.
Though the full results of the post-mortem tests will take several weeks, Mr Deaville said told the BBC they had found “no evidence of any recent feeding” and “evidence of starvation over a few days”, which he explained was consistent with the whale being found in the Thames.
Though parasites were also found in the whale’s stomach, Mr Deaville said vets did not believe this was significant.
Minke whales are the smallest of the great whales and can grow up to 10m in length.
Mr Deaville said he believed the number of whales found in the river had increased over recent years.
“It could be because there are increased numbers of them or it’s man-made impacts. The jury is still out,” he said.
The samples taken from the whale will not only help establish what happened to the creature, but will provide research material “for years to come”.
“We’re going to learn a lot about it - it’s life and the species as a whole,” he said.
Image credit: SKY News