The whale carcasses were discovered by a local dog walker
The whale carcasses were discovered by a local dog walker
Three bottlenose whales have been found dead on Papa Westray, one of Orkney's northernmost islands.

A specialist team from the University of Glasgow has started to carry out post-mortem examinations on the carcasses.

Investigations into the cause of death are ongoing.

It comes after the biggest mass stranding in Scotland for almost 30 years took place in Orkney last summer.

The Scottish Marine Animal Stranding Scheme (SMASS), a team at the University of Glasgow, arrived in Orkney after the carcasses were discovered by a local dog walker on Monday morning.

SMASS member Marielle ten Doeschate said: "With any post-mortem we're kind of on the clock, because samples start to degrade, and the more decomposed an animal is the less informative it is for auxiliary tests.

"But with deep-diving species we're extra on the ball with that because heat generation means decomposition goes quicker, so we were actually really lucky to get here so quickly."

SMASS examined one of the three whales on Tuesday before a high tide put a stop to initial investigations.

Despite a noticeable bloating after lying out in the sun, the team found that the whales had all been healthy - though they had not been feeding recently.

SMASS will continue its post-mortem examinations at Vestness in Papa Westray on Wednesday to try to determine a cause of death.

Bottlenose whales are deep-diving mammals endemic to the North Atlantic.

They are usually found at 800ft (244m) below sea level where there are no predators, feeding on squid.