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Naples (dpa) - A huge whale floating dead in the water is puzzling to experts in Italy.
It could be the mother of a missing, younger animal, it said.
A coast guard ship towed the lifeless whale body, over 20 meters long, into the harbor in Naples in southern Italy.
There the carcass should be examined to find the cause of death.
A spokesman for the coast guard told Rai1 on television that the giant weighs around 70 tons.
There was initially no news about the autopsy on Thursday.
The Coast Guard had discovered the dead marine mammal while searching for another, smaller specimen.
According to media reports, this animal appeared helpless and confused some time ago in the port of Sorrento, in the Bay of Naples.
The smaller whale then swam several times with full force against a wall.
The Coast Guard also sent helpers because he was likely to have been injured.
During the search, according to reports from the middle of the month, they found the dead giant, but not the small animal.
That made animal rights activists worry about the missing second whale.
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Several species of the world's largest mammals are at home in the Mediterranean Sea.
But the animal now found dead is a real exception in terms of its dimensions.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210121-99-122136 / 2