25-ft-long Bryde’s whale skeleton to be preserved at Bhitarkanika

Kendrapada: The forest department has decided to preserve the skeleton of a 25-ft-long Bryde’s whale that was washed ashore at the Devi river mouth beach inside Bhitarkanika National Park on Saturday. The skeleton will be displayed at the natural history museum at Dangamal.“The forest department buried the carcass of Bryde’s whale to preserve its skeleton. Noted wildlife biologist Siba Prasad Parida and his team examined the skeleton on Monday for the mounting work,” said divisional forest officer of Bhitarkanika National Park Varadaraj Gaonkar.The buried whale will be excavated after two months. “The skeleton will be mounted by collecting the bones. We have already collected DNA, bone and skin samples of the whale and handed it over to the forest department. The forest department will send the samples to Zoological Survey of India, Kolkata to identify species, determine gender, map genetic diversity, and analyze population health and pollution levels,” said Parida, who has done the skeleton mounting work of five whales in 14 years in Odisha, West Bengal and Karnataka.The skeleton of a 42-ft male Bryde’s whale which was washed ashore at West Bengal’s Digha beach was preserved by Parida in 2017. In 2015, Parida also did skeleton-mounting work of a 31-ft sperm whale which was washed ashore at Devi river mouth near Astaranga in Puri district. It is now displayed in the Regional Natural History Museum Bhubaneswar.The museum of Chilika Development Authority preserved the skeleton of a 25-ft-long baleen whale in 2013 with Parida’s help. The Natural History Museum in Bhubaneswar also preserved the skeleton of a 47.3 ft long baleen whale in 2012 with Parida’s help. In 2016, Natural History Museum of Mysore sought Parida’s help to preserve the skeleton of a 30-ft-long baleen whale that was washed ashore on a beach in Karnataka.Parida had also done skeletal mounting work by joining the skull and bones of a 20-ft-long saltwater crocodile in Bhitarkanika after unearthing all the bones and skull of the marine species in 2010.“It is high time on the part of the forest department to preserve the skeleton of the giant whale in Bhitarkanika after building a big hall to attract more tourists to the country’s second largest mangrove forest and abode of crocodiles and other species,” said Sudhanshu Parida, an environmentalist and secretary of People for Animal (PFA), district unit.