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Back in 2004, a sperm whale had been found beached and dying on the shores of Taiwan. It died by the time help arrived, so they were moving the body to the Shi-Tsao Natural Preserve to be examined at the order of Professor Wang Chien-ping after the National Cheng Kung University in Tainan said it would not accept the body.

The body had other plans, choosing to go out with a bang. Literally. The gases within the decomposing giant had built up enough to pop its belly, spilling the stomach and other random organs into the streets of Tainan. Entrails!

From what they could tell, the whale was a 50 ton bull, 17 meters long (~55 feet). National Geographic is playing a documentary this weekend on the event. I could not find a listing for it online, but some person in the wtf_nature community said it is so it must be true.

bbc article on original explosion

Tags: marine biology, national geographic, picture, sperm whale, taiwan, wtf_nature

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 16th, 2008 at 15:59 and is filed under nature, picture, science!. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.