Stumbling upon a whale in the middle of the jungle is as strange as it sounds.

Yet, this very scenario unfolded in the Amazon rainforest back in 2019.

A 36-foot whale carcass was found far from its ocean home, leaving everyone baffled about how it ended up there.

This unexpected discovery occurred on the island of Marajo, located at the Amazon River's mouth. The humpback whale, weighing 10 tonnes, was found in the undergrowth of Araruna Beach.

Several theories have been proposed about how the whale, found 50 feet from the sea, arrived at such an unusual location.

The most plausible explanation offered by scientists is that strong ocean currents lifted the mammal from the water and deposited it deep into the woods.

To get to the bottom of this mystery, a team of experts traveled to the site to determine the cause of the unfortunate whale's death.

Once there, they identified the whale as a 12-month-old calf but were perplexed about the cause of its death.

The group, dispatched by the NGO Bicho D'Agua Institute, theorized in a Facebook post that the whale might have become entangled in mangroves after being swept ashore.

Additionally, the Maritime Herald newspaper speculated that the whale might have died from ingesting plastics in the ocean.

Dirlene Silva, from SEMMA — the Brazilian environmental, health, and sanitation department, explained to local media how the whale was found:

"We only found the whale because of the presence of scavenging birds of prey. The vultures were spotted circling above the carcass which was hidden in the bush some distance from the sea."

Renata Emin, president and marine specialist of Bicho D'Agua, commented, "We're still not sure how it landed here, but we're guessing that the creature was floating close to the shore and the tide, which has been pretty strong over the past few days, picked it up and threw it inland, into the mangrove. Along with this astonishing feat, we are baffled as to what a humpback whale is doing on the north coast of Brazil during February because this is a very unusual occurrence."

The team was especially puzzled since whales are typically found in the Bahia area from August to November before migrating to Antarctica.

Emin added, "Humpback whales don't usually travel to the north. We have a record of one appearing in the area three years ago, but it's rare. We believe this is a calf which may have been traveling with its mother and probably got lost or separated during the migratory cycle between the two continents."