A 25ft-long giant whale shark’s carcass washed up on a beach after a typhoon.

The dead marine mammal emitted a foul smell as it was already in a state of decomposition when found by residents in Tawi-Tawi province, the Philippines.

It showed up on the beach after heavy monsoon rains battered the country strengthened by typhoon In-fa which also affected China and Japan.

As it was starting to disintegrate from the waves, village officials took the dead animal to another part of the beach until wildlife officers arrived to take it.

Village official Zilong Dahalan Murih said: ‘It had a bad smell so moved it to a more secluded area in the beach. The wildlife staff arrived the next day to take it.’

When the wildlife officials arrived, they took a sample of the carcass to their facility for research before burying the rest of its body on the beach. It was found to have died of natural causes.

Whale sharks are classed as endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species due to the impacts of fisheries, by-catch losses, and vessel strikes.