A young gray whale has been found dead after swimming 20 miles (32.2km) inland up a river in Washington state, a local scientific research group said, pointing to hunger as a possible cause.
"We are saddened to confirm that the whale seen in the Willapa River over the past few days is deceased," the Cascadia Research Collective said in an update on Facebook on Saturday.
It added the group was evaluating the safety of the locaction to carry out an examination.
The juvenile whale, affectionately dubbed "Willapa Willy" by locals, was first spotted last Wednesday in the north fork of the river, about 145 miles southwest of Seattle, the marine mammal research group said.
The whale, "although thin, was behaving normally," the group said at the time, with no sign of injuries.
