Employees at a golf club in southern California have rescued a shark that appeared to have fallen from the sky on a golf course, a local newspaper reported.
The US national media picked up on Friday a bizarre report by The Capistrano Dispatch describing the rescue of a 2-foot-long leopard shark that was found by an employee at San Juan Hills Golf Club on Monday afternoon.
The employee picked it up, put it into the back of his golf cart and drove it to the clubhouse.
“Honestly, this is the weirdest thing that’s happened here,” the paper quoted Director of Club Operations Melissa McCormack as saying.
McCormack suggested that the shark could have been picked out of the Pacific Ocean by a predatory bird and was dropped onto the course as “he was found bleeding from puncture wounds near its dorsal fin.”
The shark was briefly placed in a bucket filled with salted fresh water and later released back into the ocean.
"When I dropped him into the water, he just lay there for a few seconds, but then he did a twist and shot off into the water," another golf club employee told The Capistrano Dispatch.
Local experts on marine life offered another possible explanation of the mystery – the shark was left on the golf course by humans as “it is not as common to find these species so close to the shore this late in the year.”