Dolphin eats itself to death in Wales

A dolphin who could not stop himself from eating has eaten himself to death in Wales.

The bottlenose dolphin feasted on so many fish he could not fit any more.

Marine experts performed a post-mortem examination on Monty the dolphin and found his stomach filled to bursting with fish – and his next meal stuck in his throat.

'You could say that Monty was killed by gluttony,' said Rod Penrose of the Marine Environmental Monitoring unit for Wales.

'Its stomach was crammed full of fish, and I don't think there would have been room for any more,' said Mr Penrose.

'So when it swallowed this last fish, it must have been pushed back, rolled into a cigar shape, and, unusually, then lodged firmly in the nasal passages.'

Although the idea of mammals eating themselves to death may seem unusual, it is not a rare phenomenon.

'I've heard of this happening before but have never seen it,' Mr Penrose added.

Monty had been tagged after spending the summer and autumn of 2011 in Cardigan bay and ate his last meal in Hell's Mouth at the nearby Lleyn peninsular last week, reports the Metro.

Monty's demise has helped experts learn more about the area's marine population and why dolphins are returning there.

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