Bizarre: Why Do Dead Whales Explode?

Here at Mega Curioso, we have the habit of sharing news, images, memes and especially bizarre things in the team chat. It was not my surprise to receive a video titled "Top 5 Exploding Whales".

I, unaware that this happens to them, watched a compilation of blood and gut flying. Bizarre, I know.

But then that question arose: What happens in the body of a dead whale to blow it up?

Bruce Mate, director of the Oregon State University Institute of Marine Biology, has dealt with numerous whale carcasses in his career. He explains that gas accumulation is only part of tissue degradation and that it usually tends to come out of the mouth or anus.

But let's start at the beginning: why does gas accumulate in whales? Wolfgang Weinmann, forensic toxicologist at the University of Bern, Switzerland, explains that the gases that accumulate in dead animals come from different “sources”: “In this situation, putrefaction and fermentation are the possible culprits. During putrefaction, tissue proteins begin to break down, causing gases with unpleasant odors, ”he reveals.

When the products of these two steps come together, the gases generated can be trapped beneath a thick layer of fat. To be clear: do you remember when you were going to celebrate your birthday and were too excited to fill the balloons? Well, the fuller the easier it is to burst.

When an animal of this size appears dead on the beach, the best thing to do is, with the aid of a boat, to drag the body into the sea. There, an expert can perform gas release in a controlled manner through a shallow slit.

Even if you find amazing videos of explosions involving these mammals, the phenomenon can happen to any decaying animal. The only difference is in size: don't expect big pops from a squirrel, for example.

* Posted on 30/05/2016