A sperm whale calf (pictured) has washed up on a North Wales beach. The marine mammal is believed to have become stranded at Hell's Mouth in Gwynedd yesterday
A sperm whale calf (pictured) has washed up on a North Wales beach. The marine mammal is believed to have become stranded at Hell's Mouth in Gwynedd yesterday
A sperm whale calf has washed up dead on a Welsh beach, only the second to do so in a century.

The marine mammal is believed to have become stranded at Hell's Mouth in Gwynedd yesterday.

It is the first time a sperm whale has ever washed up on a Welsh beach, and only the second time it has happened anywhere in the UK in over 100 years.

A team from Cetacean Strandings Investigation Programme (CSIP) and the Zoological society of London (ZSL) are heading to North Wales to examine the calf, where they will be working with the Marine Environmental Monitoring.

The team have stressed that this is an unusual stranding and will be investigating the calf's cause of death.

The CSIP are conducting a postmortem later today to determine the cause of death.

A spokesperson of the British Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDMLR) said they expect this is the youngest calf ever recorded to be stranded.

They are estimating the calf to be between two and three years old.

The calf hasn't yet developed it teeth, suggesting it was still surviving on milk from its mother.

And, a mother sperm whale will continue to produce milk for the first two years usually, but up to four years.

A spokesperson of the British Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDMLR) said they expect this is the youngest calf ever recorded to be stranded. They are estimating the calf to be between two and three years old
A spokesperson of the British Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDMLR) said they expect this is the youngest calf ever recorded to be stranded. They are estimating the calf to be between two and three years old
Sperm whales usually survive in deep waters and hunt giant squid so when a whale finds itself in shallow or inland waters it is usually due to to some kind of problem - such as a navigational error.

Once in these waters, they generally become trapped and unable to feed which causes them to deteriorate, according to BDMLR.

The BDMLR spokesperson said: 'It is very important to note that cetaceans - whales, dolphins and porpoises - are mammals like us humans, and therefore able to carry serious diseases that can be transmitted between us.

'We would advise members of the public to avoid all contact with the carcass and any bodily fluids to avoid any risk of infection from them.

'There is the possibility that this may have been an animal that was already ill.'

This comes after a 30 tonne giant sperm whale washed up in Northumberland earlier this month, after it was spotted in shallow waters.

Chronicle Live reports that experts warned it was unlikely to survive so far from its usual tropical waters.

They were later proven right when the 43-foot male became stuck on sands near Newbiggin-by-the-Sea and died.

It was later discovered that the whale had 'large plastic' in his stomach.