Skeleton of London whale on display
MetrowebukmetroMonday 22 Jan 2007 3:27 pm
The skeleton of a whale which died after becoming stranded swimming up the River Thames has gone on public display tomorrow.
An exhibition tells the story of the whale's journey, which captured the nation's attention, and the ultimately fruitless attempt to rescue it.
The 16-foot skeleton of the northern bottlenose whale had been acquired by the Natural History Museum for scientific research.
It will go on display at the Guardian and Observer newspapers' Newsroom exhibition centre in Farringdon, North London.
Richard Sabin, curator of mammals at the Natural History Museum, told the Observer: "I hope thousands make the most of this opportunity.
"It now appears it died of dehydration. "Whales get fresh water from their food, but this type of whale normally feeds on deep-water squid which you don't find in the Thames or its estuary.
"Somehow, the whale got lost in the North Atlantic, ended up in the North Sea and then turned into the Thames where it could find nothing to eat."
Tens of thousands of people lined the Thames last January when the whale became breached at Battersea Bridge.
The female, believed to be about seven years old, died as it was being ferried out to deeper water.
The exhibition, which runs from tomorrow until Friday, will show the skeleton housed in a glass case and will also feature photography and a short film.
Ian Katz, the Guardian's executive editor, told the BBC: "The bones contain an extraordinary amount of information about the kind of diet the whale would have been on, the habitat it would have been living in, the kind of groups it would have been living in."
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