A sperm whale calf has died after being stranded for 10 days in the north-west of Skye.
Medics of the British Drivers Marine Life Rescue (BDMLR) were alerted of a whale that was in shallow waters near Dunvegan on Sunday, October 29.
The animal, which was 4.8 metres long, was identified as a dependent calf thought to be less than two years old.
The mother was not formally recorded nearby, with its dependence being one of the reasons why it was not a viable case for rescuing.
The calf, which was found stranded by the BDMLR team, was also in incredibly poor condition and it would not have survived a refloat attempt.
Medics monitored the calf for ten days from first light to nightfall, often keeping watch overnight, until it passed away on the night of Monday, November 6
The 10-day callout has been confirmed as one of the longest-running incidents that BDMLR has been involved with.
The deceased animal was removed from the scene by the Scottish Marine Animal Stranding Scheme (SMASS) this Tuesday.
They will conduct a full post-mortem to investigate possible reasons as to why it may have come ashore.
BDMLR “surprised” as sperm whale calf was discovered stranded on Skye
BDMLR medics were surprised to discover that the stranded animal was a sperm whale.
Sperm whales are a deep-diving species that are not typically seen in the relatively shallow waters surrounding the island, so the incident was highly unusual.
In the last 100 years, only one other sperm whale calf had been recorded live stranding in the UK, which happened in Wales in 2019.
