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Why is it called a beaked whale?
The name “beaked whale” is from the way the rostrum, or long snout, tapers to a tip. Looking from above, the snout has the appearance of the neck of a bottle, another common name for this whale being giant bottlenose whale.
How long do beaked whale live for?
Baird’s beaked whales are very long lived. Whaling records have documented females up to 54 years old and males up to 84 years old. Males appear to have a lower mortality rate and mature more quickly than females. Female Baird’s beaked whales reach sexual maturity at 10 to 15 years versus 6 to 11 years for males.
How many teeth do beaked whales have?
They have two teeth that are just visible when the mouth is closed. Cuvier’s beaked whales tend to travel alone (especially older males) or in groups of about 10. They are not acrobatic animals although they have been observed breaching. Their blow is not noticeable unless they have just completed a long dive.
How many types of beaked whales are there?
22 species
The beaked whale family is comprised of 22 species spread among 6 different genera: Berardius (two species), Hyperoodon (two species), Indopacetus (one species), Mesoplodon (15 species), Tasmacetus (one species) and Ziphius (one species) (IUCN 2018, McLeod 2018, Morin et al. 2017).
Why are beaked whales so rare?
Beaked whales (systematic name Ziphiidae) are a family of cetaceans noted as being one of the least known groups of mammals because of their deep-sea habitat and apparent low abundance.
Are beaked whales rare?
It’s very rare to even see a beaked whale, and to find a friendly group of beaked whales, it’s even rarer,” he said. It was only when they later studied the photographs they took of the animals that they realised they could be looking at a species which has never been described before.
How deep can a whale swim?
Beaked whales can dive 2,000 metres below the ocean’s surface. Why and how do they do it? Around 2,000 metres below the surface, the water is freezing, black and seemingly impenetrable.
How deep can a whale go?
The deepest recorded dive was 2,992 metres, breaking the record for diving mammals. Experts have suggested that this dive was unusually deep for this species. A more normal depth would be 2,000 metres. Sperm whales also regularly dive 1,000 to 2,000 metres deep.
What is the rarest whale?
the spade-toothed whale
Based on its scarcity, only two intact animals having been seen in the last 140 years, the spade-toothed whale is the world’s rarest whale.
How deep can beaked whales dive?
The champion diver among whales can stay underwater for more than 3½ hours — an unparalleled diving record for any mammal. Cuvier’s beaked whales (Ziphius cavirostris), which live in deep waters around the world, are capable of reaching depths of almost 3,000 metres when hunting for squid and other food.
How deep is a whale?
A more normal depth would be 2,000 metres. Sperm whales also regularly dive 1,000 to 2,000 metres deep. Read more about deep-diving whales.
What is the longest whale?
Antarctic blue whale
The Antarctic blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus ssp. Intermedia) is the biggest animal on the planet, weighing up to 400,000 pounds (approximately 33 elephants) and reaching up to 98 feet in length.
How big does a Baird’s beaked whale get?
Baird’s beaked whales actually resemble massive bottlenose dolphins. The animals span 35 to 42 feet (10.7 to 12.8 meters) long and adult males may weight over 22,000 pounds (10,000 kilograms). Females appear slightly heavier than the males, weighing over 24,000 pounds (11,000 kilograms).
How are beaked whales different from baleen whales?
Whales and dolphins that have teeth and hunt other animals (as opposed to baleen whales, which scoop up plankton or schools of small fish) tend to stick to the upper 1500 feet of the water column, as do predatory fish like tiger sharks and bluefin tuna. But beaked whales, which have beak-like pointed ‘snouts’, have evolved in a unique way.
How many species of beaked whales are there?
This species of whale makes up one of over 20 known species of beaked whale. Comparable in size to a school bus, these marine mammals posses a long list of unique characteristics.
What kind of teeth does a beaked whale have?
In addition to having a “beak” of differing lengths, beaked whales also have flipper pockets, depressions in the body wall into which their large flippers can be tucked. Males of the species have only a single pair of teeth and some resembling tusks. Females and juveniles are toothless.