This handout photo released on January 7, 2014 by the National Commission for Protected Natural Areas shows two conjoined gray whale calves at the Ojo de Liebre lagoon, in Los Cabos resort, state of Baja California, Mexico, on January 5, 2014. (HO, AFPGetty Images / January 7, 2014) Image credit to Orlando Sentinel.
MEXICO CITY (AP) — The Mexican government says fishermen found two rare conjoined gray whale calves that died shortly after being born.
Biologist Benito Bermudez says the whales were found alive in the Ojo de Liebre lagoon in the Baja California Peninsula but lived only a few hours.
Bermudez said Wednesday they were linked at the waist, with two full heads and tail fins.
Bermudez is a marine biologist with the National Natural Protected Areas Commission, or CONANP. He said scientists are collecting skin, muscle and baleen samples to study the creatures.
Every year more than 20,000 gray whales swim to Mexico from Alaska to mate and give birth.
Fishermen have found two conjoined gray whale calves in a northwestern Mexican lagoon, a discovery that a government marine biologist described as “exceptionally rare.” The four-meter (13-foot) long siamese whales were dead when they were found in the Ojo de Liebre lagoon (HO, AFPGetty Images / January 7, 2014). Image credit to Orlando Sentinel.
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