Ziphiidae - The beaked whales

Besides Cuvier's beaked whales there are a great number of other related species which are not terribly well-known. Most of them are named after individual humans (though generally after cetologists, other scientists and not, like the minke whale or bryde's whale, after whale killers), and there are so many of them (22 extant species) that I won't do a full blog entry for each of them, but contain them all here in this one entry. I think it will serve to illustrate the need for clarity on the nomenclature as, though many of the species are closely related, they are all genetically and at least to some extend physiologically distinct. They have each been genetically separated for thousands and sometimes millions of years, so even though they are not well known to us, they have been around longer than us and, like all cetaceans, are highly evolved animals. If you'd like to rename one of them, or to write a story, a poem or even draw/paint a picture of one of them, I'd invite you to do your own further research or get in touch with me directly and I'll try to furnish you with a little more information about them. Here are the 22 known species of beaked whale then.

Cuvier's beaked whale - Ziphius cavirostris (mentioned above).

Stamp from the Commander Islands,
part of the Aleutian islands in Alska, USA
and Kamchatka, Russia

Baird's beaked whale - Berardius bairdii. Named after Spencer Fullerton Baird, a 19th Century naturalist and museum curator. The animal looks like an elongated dolphin. They are the largest of the beaked whales, reaching up to 13 metres in length and can live up to 85 years. They tend to live in the North Pacific. They are closely related to another giant beaked whale:

Arnoux's beaked whales

Arnoux's beaked whale - Berardius arnuxii. Discovered off New Zealand in 1851 by the French corvette Le Rhin - captain Auguste Bérard, after whom the genus was named. The ship's surgeon was Dr Maurice Arnoux, who found and brought back the type specimen. They are slightly smaller (up to 12 metres long) but otherwise very similar to baird's whales, but there is enough genetic difference and the fact that they are extremely geographically separated that they are considered different species.

Karasu whale - possible new species

A third possible species has been sighted in recent years that looks very similar again but is smaller and rather more black. The Japanese are calling it カラス (karasu), meaning 'raven', but it has not yet been given a binomial and it is not clear that it is in fact a distinct species. Another possibly distinct species has been mentioned in the Sea of Okhotsk (west of Russia and North of Japan), and may be just another population of baird's whales, but they reportedly appear to have heads similar to longman's beaked whale.

Longman's beaked whale

Longman's beaked whale aka tropical bottle-nosed whale - Indopacetus pacificus. This is one of the rarest whales and no one seems to know very much about them. They are often confused with other similar species. They are named after Albert Heber Longman, curator at Queensland Museum in Australia. They get up to between 7-9 metres, have been known to dive for 45 minutes (though usually much less) and are known to be very sociable, often mixing with other cetaceans.

Stamp from the Faroe Islands
Sowerby's beaked whale

Sowerby's beaked whale - Mesoplodon bidens. This whale was discovered in Scotland in 1800 by James Sowerby, a naturalist and artist. He named it bidens because of the two prominent teeth in its jaw, though we now know this is a common feature among the genus. Males grow to 5 metres and females 5.5. They range across the Atlantic and dive down to 1500 metres and up to 30 minutes. They are very reclusive and so seldom seen. From analysis of their stomach contents they seem to feed mostly on squid, molluscs and cod.

Andrew's beaked whale stranded
on a beach in New Zealand

Andrew's beaked whale - Mesoplondon bowdoini aka deep-crest beaked whale or splay-toothed whale, has never been observed in the wild. We only know about them at all from a few stranded individuals. They were discovered by Roy Chapman Andrews, an explorer and adventurer whose whale was found on a beach in New Zealand in 1904. He named it for George Bowdoin - a donor of the American Museum of Natural History, where he worked. Virtually nothing is known about their behaviour or possible population, but physically they are thought to be more robust than other members of the genus and have teeth extending over the rostrum about halfway up the jaw.

Spade-toothed whale

19th Century flensing spade

The spade-toothed whale - Mesoplodon traversii. This animal was first described from a jaw found on an island in New Zealand in 1872, but it was not given a full physical description until 2012 and may be the rarest mammal in the world. It is distinct from other members of the genus in part by the size and shape of the teeth (9 inches long) and has a shape similar to a flensing spade, which was used in the 19th century whaling industry and from which it gets its common name. Only 4 specimens have ever been found, and these have not been well preserved, often being nothing more than a piece of mandible. The whale has never been seen alive, so if you spot one, let me know.

Strap-toothed whale

The strap-toothed whale aka Layard's beaked whale aka long-toothed whale - Mesoplodon layardii. Named after Edward Leopold Layard, the curator of the South African Museum, who prepared drawings of a skull specimen for John Edward Gray, the famous taxonomist. Males grow to 5.9 metres and females 6.2, which makes them the largest of the genus. The teeth of the males grow in such a way that their gape is half that of a female's, severely limiting the size of the food they can consume, which seems like a queer decision on the part of Mother Evolution. There have been reported sighting of these whales breaching, but most of the descriptions, like so many other members of the genus, have been from beached specimens. I daresay there will be more sightings and footage before long as so many people are out there looking with their cameras always at the ready - let's wait and see!

Deraniyagala's beaked whale

Deraniyagala's beaked whale - Mesoplodon hotaula. There have been reported strandings and no live sightings, so another very rare animal, found only around the Indian Ocean. It was named after the paleontologist Paules Edward Pieris Deraniyagala, who discovered the species in 1963. Other than that there is little to say. They are deep-diving squid-eaters, like most of the genus. They are genetically and physiologically most similar to the ginkgo whales.

Ginkgo's beaked whale

Ginkgo leaf

Ginkgo's beaked whale    - Mesoplodons ginkgodens. This species is notable for the fact that the males don't bear any scarring, which is unusual among beaked whales. Their teeth have a shape like the ginkgo leaf, hence the common name. The teeth tend not to curve over the rostrum as they do in other beaked whales. Both genders grow up to about 4.9 metres, and females are slightly lighter in colour. It is thought that the males do not fight each other as other beaked whales do.

Blainville's whale off Tenerife

Blainvilles's beaked whale aka dense beaked whale - Mesoplodon densirostris. First identified in 1817 by Henri de Blainville from a small piece of mandible, he described the bone as being the heaviest bone he'd ever encountered and so named it 'densirostris' - the dense beak. In fact the bones of this whale's jaw are the densest bone ever measured. Nobody is quite sure why this is, but it's unlikely to be used in fighting as they are relatively brittle and surround by fat. It may be that they are helpful in echolocation, but there is insufficient evidence to be sure. Happily these whales are a little better known than some of the other members of the genus, especially off the Bahamas, and there are recent photos of living animals and even some video footage, such as this, taken off Hawaii. Like other members of the genus they are deep-diving and have been found to remain silent above 170 metres, perhaps to avoid detection from killer whales. They have been found all over the world, but there are no population estimates.

A rotund Hubb's beaked whale

Hubb's beaked whale - Mesoplodon carlhubbsi. This animal was named after the ichthyologist Carl Leavitt Hubbs, who found a live whale washed up on the beach in California in 1945. It is distinguished by a white patch on its head but otherwise is quite similar to other beaked whales in appearance. They are a little more rotund than others and more tapered at the ends. Again, they are shy and never seen alive (except one possible reported sighting). They have a higher degree of scarring than others and so are thought to be aggressive and competitive.

Gervais' beaked whale breaching

Gervais' beaked whale aka antillian beaked whale aka gulf stream beaked whale aka European beaked whale - Mesoplodon europaeus. Found only in the Atlantic, these whales beach more frequently than other mesoplodons. They have been sighted several times in recent years, including instances of breaching, especially around the Canary Islands. They eat squid and, unfortunately, plastic bags, which look a lot like squid in the right kind of light. One young whale washed up in Puerto Rico in 2011 had 10 pounds of plastic in its stomach, which almost certainly contributed to its death (stop using plastic bags folks). The beak is very straight and the teeth are barely visible towards the front of the mandible. They are named after Paul Gervais, a paleontologist and entomologist, who was sent the first sample of the species in 1855. Like so many of the beaked whales, little is known about them, but one beached specimen is believed to have been around 48 years old. There is some good footage caught off Madeira in 2012 here.

Gray's beaked whale

Gray's beaked whale aka Haast's beaked whale aka the scamperdown whale aka southern beaked whale aka hakurā or iheihe (in Maori) - Mesoplodon grayi. This species was first described by Julius von Haast, who named it after the famous zoologist and taxonomist John Gray of the British Museum (in the department now known as the Natural History Museum) in London. It is the only member of the genus to have an upper set of teeth and, though there are 17 to 22 rows of teeth, they are barely visible towards the back of the long beak. They are known to strand in large groups and the original specimens were taken from a pod of 28 that all stranded together sometime around 1874-5. Most beaked whales are thought to live in pods of between 3 and 7 or 8 individuals and don't usually strand in groups, so gray's whales seem to be unusually gregarious. There is some rare footage of them actually beaching themselves here.

Hector's whale breaching

'Fangs' of a hectori

Hector's beaked whale - Mesoplodon hectori. Named after James Hector of the colonial museum in New Zealand, it is a relatively small animal, growing up to 4.2 metres and weighing about a ton, one specimen was found to have a small, large pair of fangs, which may be vestigial, so perhaps we might call it the vampire whale. They can be found in the southern parts of the Pacific, Indian and Atlantic Oceans and do strand sometimes but generally stay out to sea in deep water and are seldom seen.

True's beaked whale breaching in the Bay of Biscay

True's beaked whale - Mesoplodon mirus. Named after Frederick W. True, curator and biologist at what is now the Smithsonian. They're medium sized and look fairly typical for mesoplodons but with their teeth right at the end of their beaks. The first ever footage of these whale was captured recently (2017), filmed off the Azores - it can be seen here.

Pygmy beaked whale - still bigger than a man

Pygmy beaked whale aka bandalero beaked whale aka Peruvian beaked whale aka lesser beaked whale - Mesoplodon peruvianus. From these names you will have surmised that the are (a) quite small whales and (b) are found off the coast of Peru (actually as far up as Baja California). They grow up to about 4 metres long, so not much smaller than hector's whale, but still the smallest of the genus. The mouth line has a distinctive arch to it and the males have chevrons on their backs. Fish have been found in their stomachs, which is unusual (by now you know that most beaked whales feed almost exclusively on squid). Little else is known about their behaviour but they have been spotted in groups.

Perrin's beaked whale

Perrin's beaked whale - Mesoplodon perrini. This is the most recently described whale having been named in 2002 after cetologist William F. Perrin. They are closely related to the pygmy beaked whales, occupying areas of the Pacific a little north of the the pygmy's range, beaching in California and possibly being sighted there. They are relatively small - a mature male beached and measured 3.9 metres and a female was 4.4 metres. At sight they are difficult to distinguish and look very much like hectors beaked whales, but analysis of the skull and/or DNA sequencing shows them to be a separate species. Given how recently this species has come to light, and how rare sightings of beaked whales are in general, it likely that other species will be discovered in the future - watch this space...

Stejneger's beaked whale

Stejneger's tooth

Stejneger's beaked whale aka Bering sea beaked whale aka Saber-toothed whale - Mesoplodon stejnegeri. As the common names suggest, this whale is found in the Bering sea, in the North Pacific and was first discovered on Bering Island in 1883 by Leonhard Hess Stejneger, who was a herpetologist - which means he studied creeping things - amphibians and reptiles primarily. Like all members of the ziphiidae, the males have two prominent teeth, but with these whales they are especially sabre-like and much bigger than most other beaked whales, hence the other common name. The coloration is generally quite dark but lighter around the head, giving them the appearance of wearing a helmet. They are the northernmost living beaked whales but may migrate further south in the winter. Some specimens have been found with healed jaw fractures so they are probably very tough and aggressive fighters. There are some excellent still images of these whales breaching here.

Shepherd's beaked whale

Shepherd's beaked whale aka Tasman's whale - Tasmacetus shepherdi. Named after its discoverer George Shepherd, who found the type specimen on a New Zealand beach in 1937, there have been 4 confirmed sightings at sea. They can grow to 7 metres and weigh three and half tonnes. It is the only beaked whale with a full set of functioning teeth, up to 27 pairs in both upper and lower jaws. They are dark brown on their backs and creamy white on their bellies, with pale streaks above the flippers and behind the dorsal fins (see pictures). From the few confirmed sightings it seems they are quite gregarious, moving in pods of up to 12 individuals. They tend to stick to the rough waters of the Antarctic, so are seldom seen. It is the only member of its genus and its closest relative is cuvier's beaked whale, the only other member of the suborder Ziphiinae. There is a tiny amount of footage of them here.

Northern bottlenose whale

flukes

Northern bottlenose whale - Hyperoodon ampullatus. Reaching nearly 10 metres on average with reports of bigger individuals above 11 metres, the Northern bottlenose, as the name suggests, is found in the northern hemisphere, and specifically in the north Atlantic ocean.

Like other beaked whales they are deep-diving animals, yet they are known to frequent shallow waters and are curious about humans. This means its much easier to study them, but it was also much easier to hunt them in the days of whaling and they were very frequently caught.

The Thames Whale
at the NHM London

In 2006 a bottlenose swam right up the river Thames in London, clearly confused and unwell. Attempts were made to rescue it but sadly it died during the rescue (through no fault of the rescuers) and its skeleton is now on display at the Natural History Museum. There's a nice video about how to identify them here.

Southern bottle nose breaching

Southern bottlenose whale - Hyperoodon planifrons. This whale is happily not endangered and is believed to be the most abundant whale in the Antarctic. They grow up to about 7.5 metres, so are smaller than their northern relatives. It is known for it's extremely bluff melon and for having a relatively small dorsal fin. They are found all around the Antarctic circle in South America, South Africa and the Antipodes. Otherwise they are quite similar to the northern members of the genus. The only video I've found is this incredibly strange item.

That ends the list of known beaked whales, but who knows, perhaps there'll be an opportunity to add to it before very long.