By Tim Binnall
Authorities in Brazil have something of a macabre mystery on their hands after finding the massive remains of a dead humpback whale inexplicably sitting in the middle of the Amazon jungle. The puzzling discovery was reportedly made after it was noticed that a considerable number of scavenger birds had taken an interest in something located in a remote patch of swampland at a location known as Marajo Island. A team of conservationists and government officials subsequently ventured out to the area and were astounded by what they found.
Looking incredibly out-of-place amid the lush forestry of the jungle was a 36-foot-long carcass of a humpback whale. Amazingly, the dead creature's final resting spot measured around 50 feet from shore, leaving scientists scratching their heads as to how it wound up where it did. The prevalent theory is that the whale was close to shore and somehow got swept up in a recent storm that subsequently deposited it in the jungle. That said, the fact that a humpback whale was even in the area in the first place is something of a head-scratcher, experts say, since they normally do not frequent the area at this time of year.
While being flung from the ocean and dropped into the jungle is already quite the journey for the unfortunate sea creature, it would appear that the whale's story has really only just begun. That's because officials say that they cannot feasibly remove the carcass from the nearly-inaccessible area where it is presently located and, therefore, they are going to let nature take its course until they can recover the animal's skeleton. At that point, they plan to reassemble the remains for display at a museum.