Lost humpback whale abandoned by friends in croc-infested river in Australia | Live Science
A humpback whale is swimming the wrong way up an alligator-filled river in Australia’s Northern Territory, according to media reports. The lost whale is traveling further inland than any whale has ever been seen on the continent, government experts said on Monday (Sept. 14).
“It’s something that’s never been recorded before not just in the Northern Territory, but in Australia,” Carol Palmer, a marine ecosystems scientist for the Northern Territory Government, told the Australian Broadcasting Company (ABC). “It’s really, really unusual.”
The stranded whale is one of three humpbacks (Megaptera novaeangliae) spotted last week swimming in the not-at-all-ominously-named East Alligator River, which connects Kakadu National Park in northern Australia with the nearby sea. Saltwater crocodiles inhabit the river’s murky, brown waters as far as 100 miles (160 kilometers) inland, CNN reported, where they wait to ambush a variety of prey, including the occasional human.
Yikes.