Gervais' beaked whale

Called The Gervais 's beaked whale ( Mesoplodon europaeus), also European Beaked Whale, a cetacean of the genus two toothed whales ( Mesoplodon ), to the family of beaked whales ( Ziphiidae ) is heard.

Dissemination

The first specimen was discovered and named by the French biologist Gervais in 1855 in the English Channel. This reference, however, proved to be as atypical as the main range of the species covers the western mid-Atlantic. Gervais 's Beaked whales are found from New York in the north to the south and Venezuela in particular in the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean often. In the eastern Atlantic, there are far fewer finds, stranded animals are found in the Canary Islands, the west coast of Africa and the island of Ascension.

Description

Gervais 's Beaked whales are dark gray in color, the underside is lighter. The head is very small for whales, has a suggested melon and sometimes ends in a white tip, as with all two toothed whales extend the two teeth of the lower jaw from the closed mouth out. With a length of up to 5.2 meters, females are larger than males, which are a maximum of 4.5 meters long.

Way of life

These whales live in the warmer regions of the Atlantic. They live pelagic ( open water ) in pairs or small schools, scars on the back and flanks of the males in particular suggest rival fights. Their main diet consists of squid.

Threat

Gervais 's beaked whales were hunted commercially never, but there are reports that they were caught in fishing nets and drowned. Whether the dense ship traffic in their area of ​​distribution and the irritation caused by the sonar of submarines is a threat, is not entirely clear, mass strandings during a NATO maneuver, in which even low frequency sonar was used, indicate in any case out. For an estimate of the total population or in the real degree of hazard but there is too little data.