Dead dwarf sperm whale
Dead dwarf sperm whale
A dwarf sperm whale was found at the shoreline of Barangay Baloy in Cagayan de Oro City on Thursday.

Fisherman Cocoy Saa said two whales were earlier spotted near the shore, and one of the whales seemed to push the other to shallow waters before it left.

According to Laboratory Analyst John Roy Obsines of the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources' (BFAR) region 10 office, the dead whale might have suffered from stress, and was the victim of a shark attack.

The small whale had several injuries--its wounds were round, and seemed to be cookiecutter shark bites.

Cookiecutter sharks, also known as cigar sharks, can be found around the world, and are known to inhabit the Pacific Ocean.

They are named for the cookie-shaped bites they inflict on prey animals, and are listed as of least concern in the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species.

Dwarf sperm whales, meanwhile, are considered the smallest known whales in the world. The IUCN listed the rare whale as "data deficient," meaning there is not enough information on the animal's population to know how threatened it is.

The dead whale, which measured 2.2 meters in length and weighed more or less 200 kilograms, was buried in a spot along the coast of Barangay Baloy.