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Up to 145 pilot whales have died after becoming stranded on a remote New Zealand beach in a "heartbreaking" tragedy.
Devastating footage showed some of the whales lying motionless and half-buried in the sand on the country's Stewart Island.
The creatures were discovered by a hiker camping in the area, who notified the Department of Conservation (DOC) on Saturday night.
The DOC said two pods of pilot whales were found stranded on the island, around 20 miles south of New Zealand's South Island.
Tragically, half of them were already dead.
A decision was then made to put the rest of the whales down due to their poor condition and the remote location, DOC Rakiura Operations Manager Ren Leppens said.
"Sadly, the likelihood of being able to successfully refloat the remaining whales was extremely low," said Mr Leppens, who described it as the most humane thing to do.
"However, it's always a heart-breaking decision to make."
The whales are thought to have been on the beach for perhaps a day before being found in two pods, just over a mile apart.
Stewart Island, also know as Rakiura, is home to around 380 people.
New Zealand has one of the world's highest rates of whale strandings, although the precise cause for it is not known.
The DOC said it responds to an average of 85 incidents a year, mostly for single animals.
Many factors could contribute to such whale and dolphin strandings, including sickness, navigational error, geographical features, a rapidly falling tide, being chased by a predator, or extreme weather, according to the department.
Ten pygmy killer whales were also stranded on Sunday at 90 Mile Beach on the western coast of the North Island. Two have since died and attempts were being made to refloat the rest.
The DOC said the two events were unlikely to be related.
About 300 whales died on a beach at the northwest tip of South Island last year in one of New Zealand's largest recorded mass whale strandings.
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