A 40ft whale has washed up on a beach in southern Spain in a sad and rare phenomenon.
The marine mammal - which is a fin whale - is thought to have beached itself after becoming injured.
Crowds gathered on the La Rada beach in Estepona to see and take pictures of the carcass.
Jose Luis Mons, from the Centre for the Recovery of Marine Species, told The Olive Press: 'It is not common to find whales stranded here on the beach, but tragically it does happen on some occasions.
'Of course, in most cases the whales are already dead.'
The centre added the female whale's body is 'in an advanced state of decomposition' as she died some days ago.
Estepona Council confirmed a major operation is underway to recover the carcass.
A post-mortem will then be carried out by marine biologists and other experts to determine the cause of death.
The fin whale, according to the WWF, is the second largest mammal in the world next to the blue whale.
They have a distinct ridge along their back behind the dorsal fin, which gives it the nickname 'razorback'.
Another very unusual feature of the fin whale is that its lower right jaw is bright white, and the lower left jaw is black.
They grow up to 80ft long and are an endangered species, with around 50,000 to 90,000 of the mammals existing worldwide.
Winternights3 - man oh man, WN3. I seriously went down and got a candle and bought it back up with me and I lit it.
Beyond the KC ribs (Sunday evening where I reside) I've also got some guests coming over to visit for a friendly game of poker to be played outside in the cold! I think it is going to be a blast (metaphorically speaking of course) and I purchased a open flame propane heater for the purpose. I am a good friend and have made efforts to keep the poker group together. Plus, I was sad to hear one of the members just recently have some "brain issues" (bleeding, tumor...I'm not sure....) that seemed to come up sudden. I'm pretty sure there is a non-trivial possibility that this sad turn of events for my friend requiring emergency surgery and what not is not independent of the jabs, but guess what? I sure as hell am not going to say that in that company. It wouldn't go down well and I understand. Anyhow, these fellas are my UU pals from old and while they really know some stuff I kind of think they are clueless for some things been in their faces lately and that is part of the reason why I'm looking forward to playing poker with them. I told them the 1 house rules is thus: "No Topics off the Table of Discourse". That is my House Rule. If you come to my house you can express your views without fear.....say what you think please. If we don't talk across the table I'm saddened to say "our" fate is sealed. So, seems to make good sense to talk across the table, but that takes practice and best not to offend those you are sitting with.
The obvious is being ignored and buried in unnecessary protocol .
What humanity is witnessing here is a Red Flag movement in the animal kingdom caused by natural seismic events within this area.