Villagers in Thailand ran in panic after discovering the remains of an 'alien' in a swamp.
Locals were fishing in a river near their homes on January 20 when they spotted the strange, decomposed body stuck to the roots of mangroves in Nakhon Si Thammarat.
Footage shows frightened fishermen nearby watching as authorities measured the dead creature, half-buried in the swamp.
It had an elongated head with sharp teeth in its mouth and its rotting skin looked shiny.
Crab hunter Pinij Bansuwan said: “I was setting my traps when I saw the large creature with sharp teeth. It looked like an alien.
'I panicked and ran away. I've never seen anything like it in our river. I was born and raised here.'
He told his neighbors about the shocking discovery and they informed the authorities.
Experts from the Department of Marine and Coastal Natural Resources and the Marine and Coastal Resources Research Center of the Lower Gulf of Thailand arrived for an inspection.
Experts traveled to the site to inspect the carcass and take samples to determine what it was
The team identified it as a false killer whale, a type of oceanic dolphin that lives in the deep sea
They took the boat into the forest and walked 50 meters through the mud from the riverbanks before finding the creature.
They identified it as a false killer whale, a type of oceanic dolphin that lives in the deep sea.
They took samples, including stomach and head tissue, to a laboratory for analysis to confirm their hypothesis.
One of the researchers, Rattanaporn Phakphian, said: 'It looked like a juvenile. We cannot determine gender due to decomposition.”
The expert added that the 4-meter-long baby whale was likely stranded due to wind and high tides.
Rattanaporn said: 'It could have been there since December and was stuck in the mangrove forest.'
He added that it was possible that the whale “became ill during the recent period of strong winds and high tides” before being “swept by the current until it entered the channel and became trapped in the mangrove forest before dying” .
Experts say the 13-foot baby whale is likely stranded due to wind and high tides
But, he said, “due to the decomposed state of the remains,” the true cause of death cannot be known with certainty.
The false killer whale is listed as near threatened on the IUCN Red List and is also listed on CITES Appendix II due to factors such as a declining population, the threat of habitat loss and human-induced activities including entanglement in fishing gear and depletion . of their prey.
