Long Finned Pilot Whale Died after becoming stranded in Shetland, Scotland

The dead whale was five metres long, but the species can grow to six metres and weigh as much as 3.5 tonnes.

Normally stranded dolphins are flown to Inverness for autopsy, but the whale was too big so vets from the Scottish Agricultural College (SAC) will instead travel to Shetland for the procedure, which will begin on Tuesday.

SAC staff regularly examine marine mammals from around Scotland and co-ordinate the Scottish Marine Mammal stranding scheme.

Karen Hall from Scottish Natural Heritage said it was a “sad end” for the whale. She said: “It is important to investigate the cause of death.

“We know so little about these creatures that post-mortems can provide useful information about the species – what condition the individual was in, whether it had been feeding or whether it had underlying disease or injury which caused it to strand.

“Normally we would attempt to send dead dolphins south to the vet lab in Inverness but this whale is just too big for us to do that.”

She said pilot whales are “notorious” stranders which normally prefer deep water but come inshore in search of squid, which is their main food source.