An enormous 20 tonne blue whale has washed up on a remote beach.
The huge 50ft long carcass was first spotted by fishermen who informed the environmental authorities.
It dwarfed the pickup truck that officials arrived in.
The whale appears to be triple the length of the vehicle as seen from above in a drone photograph.
It was found near the town of Artilleros, west of Montevideo, Uruguay.
It is the first time a blue whale has washed up in the country in over a century.
Julio Medina, spokesperson for the Kerayvoty Nature Reserve, said it was first spotted last Friday (22 Sept).
But officials were unable to visit the site for several days as it “has little access.”
They estimated that the blue whale had been dead for at least 10 days.
Mr Medina said: “It is a whale that weighs around 20 tonnes or so.
“It measures 15.5 metres in length and 3.4 metres in width.”
Jaime Coronel, spokesperson for the Ministry of Livestock, Agriculture and Fisheries, said scientists will take samples from the carcass to establish the whale’s exact cause of death.
It comes after a blue whale was washed up in southern Chile.
He said: “It is not an animal that has been reported to have suffered from avian influenza, like in other countries.
“So we would estimate in principle that there is no relationship because there is no previous case, given that this affected Chile and Argentina in areas where these animals are more common.”
He added that they will dispose of the huge animal’s carcass as part of a “fairly complex operation”.
