Hourglass dolphin

Jumping hourglass dolphins

The hourglass dolphin ( Lagenorhynchus cruciger ) is a dolphin from the kind of short -beaked dolphins. He is a resident of the Southern Ocean and adjacent to the Southern Right dolphins the only as far south live dolphin.

Features

The hourglass dolphin is 160 to 180 cm long and between 90 and 120 kg. The muzzle is short and thick. Upper and lower jaw each have 56 to 60 teeth. Nose, forehead and back are black, as well as a strip that starts with the white rimmed eye and converges at the end of the tail with the black of the back. It thickens under the fin, so that two large, elongated white patches develop on the edge, which are connected by a close connection to an hourglass shape. The belly is white. The flippers are strongly curved, black on both sides and have pointed ends. The fin has severely bent a broad base and a more or less concave back, with some, possibly older animals, is the leading edge of the fin and the end of a hook. The tail has, especially on the underside conspicuous keel -like ridges on. The Fluke is black on both sides, with a distinct indentation in the middle and concave trailing edge.

Dissemination

The distribution of the hourglass dolphin extends around the Antarctic pack ice, approximately between 65 ° and 45 ° south latitude. Most sightings took place on the open sea.

Behavior

The hourglass dolphin gathers to groups of up to seven, rarely up to forty animals, the largest visible group consisted of about 100 animals. They live in the same habitat, such as sei whales, pilot whales and minke whales and share with them their food areas. It feeds on fish and cephalopods.

Threat and protection

It is assumed that the hourglass dolphin is locally quite frequently. Despite the rare sightings, there are estimates that today 140,000 specimens of this species live. He has never hunted or kept in captivity, and the number of people killed as bycatch in fishing nets animals is very low. Thus, the hourglass dolphin one of the few whales that are very little affected by humans. He is listed in Appendix II of CITES.

Evidence

• Mark Carwardine: whales and dolphins. Delius Klasing, Bielefeld 2008, ISBN 978-3-7688-2473-6, pp. 216-217.
• Lagenorhynchus cruciger in the Red List of Threatened Species IUCN 2006 Posted by: .. Cetacean Specialist Group, 1996, Accessed on 12 May 2006