Environmentalists lose a whale in Brazil's Amazon jungle

0 Comments | AFP, November, 2007

RIO DE JANEIRO (AFP) — Environmentalists have lost track of a five-meter (27-foot) Minke whale that they had freed from a mudflat where it got stuck in the Amazon jungle's Tapajos River, 900 kilometers (560 miles) from the Atlantic Ocean.

Brazil's Environment and Renewable Natural Resources Institute (Ibama) said Friday it has called off the search for the whale, which they said swam up the Tapajos after entering the Amazon River at Marajo Island.

The whale was spotted by locals beached on a river mudbank and was freed on Wednesday with the help of an Ibama team of biologists, who then followed the mammal for a few hours before it disappeared from view.

An Ibama speedboat and helicopter joined local natives in canoes searching for the whale, which it is...