COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Four front-end loaders on Thursday rolled a dead sperm whale further onto a Danish island where it will be cut up and its carcass sent for destruction.

Denmark’s Nature Agency told onlookers not to touch the decomposing 12-meter (40-foot) -long mammal because it can be infected with bacteria.

The dead whale became visible Wednesday when the tide went out on Fanoe, an island off Esbjerg, some 310 kilometers (190 miles) west of Copenhagen.

The government agency said marine mammal experts would start cutting the whale up on Friday. It was not clear when or why the whale died.