Beluga Discovered In Alaska River, 1,000 Miles From Nearest Ocean - ENN

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Scientists are mystified at the carcass of a young beluga whale found in a river in central Alaska, nearly 1,000 miles from its natural ocean habitat.

The first guess is the 8-foot-long whale, which often feed on fish in estuaries and the mouths of rivers, swam away from the ocean in search of food. "What are the alternatives?" asked Link Olson, curator of the University of Alaska Museum of the North.

It was highly unlikely that someone was perpetrating a hoax along a remote section of river with a whale carcass, he said. "If you were ever close to a dead marine mammal, even for a few hours, you would know why no one in their right mind would do that."

Canoeists found the whale June 9 on the Tanana River about 40 miles southwest of Fairbanks. Sylvia Brunner, a marine mammals researcher at the museum in Fairbanks, identified the decomposing carcass and oversaw its recovery on Wednesday.

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http://www.enn.com/today.html?id=10682

the "Loch Ness Monster" or some variant thereof.

In 1926 a missionary came across something very interesting and unusual just before summiting Mt. Kilimanjaro- the corpse of a frozen leopard. Why would a leopard climb to the top of the world, through harsher and harsher environments. Was it just to see what the world looked like from such a great height? We will never know. The picture of the withered carcass and the mystery behind it inspired Hemingway to write "The Snows of Kilimanjaro".

I was watching a fascinating documentary series called "Weird Nature" from the BBC. In one of the episodes, the documentary turns its focus to how animals use plants or their environment to medicate or, in some cases, inebriate themselves. Local tribesmen noticed that the jaguars, IIRC, would eat the waxy leaves of a certain plant before hunting. They believed it would allow them to achieve heightened senses and sure enough it did, proving to be a mild hallucinogenic.

Anyway, there was a fascinating shot of the jaguar eating the leaves, beginning to display playful or kittenish behavior before finally tumbling on its back and staring up into the sun-dappled jungle canopy above. There was a close up on its eyes as it lolled back and stared up, moving from detail to detail high above. It reminded me of an earlier time, my teenage friends and I freshly-stoned and on our backs in the middle of one of the many lush, almost pre-historic, forests in the Pacific Northwest. Heads touching, our bodies radiating like a star burst, just....looking...up...into...the...canopy.

Maybe the whale was following a vision, a Moses of the cetaceans, intent on bringing back a message to free its dying people from the hell of propellers or pollution or the harpoon. Maybe curiosity got the better of it, like so many organisms on this planet of curious organisms. Or maybe, it was something...else.

I'd like to think both the whale and that leopard, and a host of other organisms who have dared, for whatever reason, to undertake a journey to the far reaches of the Known, found, in some way, what they were searching for.

PB

And I totally mean it.

You know? With the number of posts on here daily there are so many beautiful messages-in-a-bottle that get lost in a sea of bobbing soda-pop- I try to take the time and read through as many of them as I can because when I do come across something that clicks with me the search was worth it. I'm glad my post had that effect on you today!

Peace.

PB

...it would disappear faster than a politician's promise. E/E's a little slower, fortunately. :)

beutifully put...