Tuesday 27 October 2009

Sowerby's BW... the full monty!

Hi Cliff,

This animal was a 4.25 metre male Sowerby's beaked whale found stranded on Sunday 25th October at Kenfig Nature Reserve, Bridgend, Wales, UK, Grid Ref: SS 784 805. The carcass was in a state of moderate decomposition. Both the tips of the lower jaw and the rostrum had been broken off, but unerupted teeth were still present in the lower jaw. It has been designated SW2009/340.

Several ribs were broken as well as the damage to the beak so I think the carcass had been working its way up the north Devon coast from rock to rock. There was a report of an unidentified cetacean stranded at Lynmouth in an inaccessible location on the 18th Oct which was probably this animal. Both stomachs were empty. It wasn’t a pretty carcass so you may not get pics.

Regards

Rod.

Rod Penrose, Strandings Co-ordinator (Wales)
UK Cetacean Strandings Investigation Programme (CSIP).
World Wide Web:
www.ukstrandings.org
UK & Republic of Ireland 'TURTLE' Database Manager.
Tel: 01239 682405


So there we are folks another mystery solved! By the way any live or dead strandings should be reported to Rod as he has the equipment and contaacts to deal with this kind of thing.

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