Danish scientists carrying out an autopsy on Timmy, the stranded whale that was found dead on the coast of Anholt, have found a cervix in the carcass, indicating that Timmy was actually female.
Timmy’s plight became a major media story in Germany after she was stranded off Timmendorfer Strand, north of Lübeck on the German Baltic coast and was then named after the beach.
The whale has frequently been referred to as “he” in press coverage.
A major rescue operation was launched, and the whale was loaded onto a barge and transported to the Kattegat Sea between Denmark and Sweden, where she was released in early May.
Her remains were then found near the Danish island of Anholt two weeks later. Danish authorities then carried out a public autopsy on the beach which began on Thursday afternoon at 4.30pm.
First, the carcass was emptied of air and gases, and then the scientists worked their way through the whale’s body layer by layer.
According to a live update from Germany’s Bild newspaper, a parasitic worm was also found in the animal’s kidney and a piece of fishing net was found in its intestine.
The researchers now plan to take parts of the skeleton back to the Fisheries and Maritime Museum in Esbjerg for further study.
Charlotte Bie Thøstesen, the museum’s head of natural history, told Germany’s Bild newspaper that humpback whales are difficult to study in the wild, so researchers tried to gain as much knowledge as possible from dead stranded whales.
“When we find stranded whales here in Denmark, we use them to gain insights into these wild animals,” she said.
The rest of the animal will be shipped from Anholt in containers to be cremated.
