A female Orca whale which was found dead in Cork Harbour last Sunday may have been up to 80 years old, according to experts from the Department of Zoology and Animal Ecology in University College Cork. Ms Sinead Murphy, for the department, said they were examining samples taken from the whale.
"From research we have carried out on killer whales we know that their teeth wear down as they get older. So we are doing age analysis on the teeth and sectioning them off for growth analysis."
Ms Murphy said female Orca whales lived to least 50, with every possibility that the dead whale in Cork may have been older.
Initial results from a post-mortem carried out on the orca indicate that she died of natural causes. Samples taken from the animal have been sent to laboratories in the UK.
The killer whale was one of a pod of three which arrived in the harbour last month after following a shoal of fish.
Mr Jim Wilson, a conservationist, said it was unlikely that the whale died from toxins in the harbour. "If she died within a month of being in the harbour then every other fish would be belly up at this stage."
He suggested that the orca may have come inshore to Cork Harbour to die.