THREE whales have been found dead after being stranded on a Scottish island.
The bottlenose whales were discovered on Papa Westray, one of Orkney's northernmost islands, by a dog walker on Monday, BBC Scotland reports.
The Scottish Marine Animal Stranding Scheme (SMASS), a team at Glasgow University, arrived in Orkney after the carcasses were discovered and is carrying out investigations into the cause of death.
Initial investigations found that the whales had all been healthy, although they had not been feeding recently.
Post-mortem examinations on the three bottlenose whales will continue at Vestness in Papa Westray on Wednesday to try and determine a cause of death.
SMASS director Dr Andrew Brownlow, a veterinary pathologist, told the BBC: "We're getting many more species that we'd normally see further south in warmer waters that seem to be coming up here more frequently in bigger numbers."
He said the reason for the shift from their natural habitat remains unconfirmed, but that it ultimately seemed to be as a result of climate change.
Bottlenose whales are deep-diving mammals endemic to the North Atlantic.
They are usually found at 800ft (244m) below sea level where there are no predators, feeding on squid.
SMASS were called out to Orkney in July last year, when an entire pod of 77 whales died in a mass stranding in Sanday.
It was the largest mass stranding of whales in Scotland since 1995.
A similar incident occurred in July, 2023, in the Isle of Lewis, when 55 pilot whales were stranded, with only one surviving.
