A rotting 10m long whale carcass has washed up on the famous beach of Copacabana in the south-eastern Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro yesterday (16 September).
A team of biologists from the Faculty of Oceanography at Rio de Janeiro State University believe it to be a baby humpback whale. They have taken samples of the animal to study to also try and work out the cause of death.
Local media footage showed beachgoers approaching the rotting carcass and taking photos of it, despite its strong smell and a cordon erected by local firefighters.
The species is commonly found in Brazilian waters between the months of July and August, when the humpbacks seek shallower waters to reproduce.
A team of 13 people arrived in the early afternoon of the same day to remove the carcass.
They had to use a mechanical shovel, two tractors and a dumper truck to remove the whale, given its weight and size.
They took the carcass to a landfill in the nearby municipality of Seropedica.
Adult humpback whales can measure up to 16 metres (118 feet) and weight up to 30 tonnes (66,000 lbs).
Carcass of a whale stranded on the sand of Copacabana beach 
Carcass of a whale stranded on the sand of Copacabana beach
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Story By: William McGee, Sub-Editor: Marija Stojkoska, Agency: Newsflash
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