Experts are baffled after a baby sperm whale washed up on a Welsh beach.
The calf washed up at Hell’s Mouth in Gwynedd on Tuesday, October 29.
Despite being skinny and malnourished the baby was close to seven metres in length.
However what is really unusual is how the beautiful creature came to be in Welsh waters to begin with.
"They are a deep-water species," said a spokeswoman from British Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDMLR), a charity that rescues aquatic mammals.
"They shouldn't be in waters around our coastline. Once they come into shallower waters they are not able to feed. They feed on giant squid.
"Normally it is young adult males that would accidentally come into our waters."
The stats illustrate how unusual it is for one of these deep-sea animals to wash up in Wales.
According to the Cetacean Strandings Investigation Programme this is believed to be the first sperm whale to have washed ashore in Wales and only the second calf to have washed up in the UK since records began in 1913.
Another curious thing is the age of the calf. "We don't know where this calf would have come from," said the BDMLR spokeswoman.
"They can take milk from their mothers from two years after they are born so it is likely it was still dependent on its mother.
"It was very thin so it seems likely it was separated from its mother."
The BDMLR have told the public that whales can carry disease so not to approach the carcass on the beach.
A post-mortem examination is currently being carried out to establish how the whale died.
