Page 415 - (DK) Ocean - The Definitive Visual Guide

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ORDER CETACEA Like its relatives, it has an almost
cylindrical body, a small dorsal fin
Cuvier’s Beaked placed far back, and relatively short
flippers for its size. Its jaws are short
Whale and beaklike, with an upturned
mouthline. Females are toothless,
but in males, the lower jaw has two
Ziphius cavirostris
LENGTH 18–23 ft peglike teeth at its tip, which project
(5.5–7 m)
when the mouth is closed. The overall
WEIGHT Up to 3.3 tons color varies from gray and dark brown
(3 metric tons)
to yellow, with a swirling pattern of
HABITAT Deep water darker markings.
Cuvier’s beaked whale lives in deep
DISTRIBUTION Tropical, subtropical, and temperate water and can dive for more than half
waters worldwide, except in far north and south
an hour. Its feeding behavior is poorly
known, apart from the fact that it
There are at least 20 species of beaked preys on squid and fish. It has never
whales, but little is known about most been hunted commercially, but it is
of them. Cuvier’s beaked whale is occasionally an accidental bycatch in
probably one of the most widespread, fishing nets, an occurrence that has
because stranded specimens have been become more common with the
found in many parts of the world. spread of deep-water trawling.

MASSED RANKS

During the breeding season,
belugas gather in herds that may
be thousands strong. Within each
One of the largest beaked whales, this herd, the whales are grouped
ORDER CETACEA
species has a gray body and a bulbous according to age and sex, with
Northern Bottlenose forehead, which sometimes overhangs pregnant and nursing mothers
its jaws. Males have two to four teeth, staying close together with their
Whale at the tip of the lower jaw; females young. Belugas communicate
rarely have any. Its tail fins (flukes) using sound, but they can also
are large and powerful, but the front make facial expressions—a
Hyperoodon ampullatus
LENGTH 28–33 ft flippers are unusually small and set unique attribute among whales.
(8.5–10 m) far forward, just behind the head. They also often hunt in groups.
WEIGHT Up to These whales are exceptionally good
8.3 tons (7.5 metric tons) divers, capable of staying underwater
HABITAT Deep water for over two hours. Unlike other ORDER CETACEA
beaked whales, this species was Beluga Whale
DISTRIBUTION Arctic Ocean, temperate and subpolar commercially hunted for many years,
waters of the north Atlantic
but it is still locally abundant. Delphinapterus leucas
1
LENGTH 13–16 / 2 ft
(4– 5 m)
ORDER CETACEA the tusk emerges through the animal’s WEIGHT Up to 1.7 tons
upper lip, developing spiral grooves as (1.5 metric tons)
Narwhal it grows. Apart from this outstanding HABITAT Coastal waters,
feature, males and females are similar, sometimes rivers
Monodon monoceros with a long cylindrical body, a DISTRIBUTION Arctic Ocean, Bering Sea, Sea of
1
LENGTH 13–16 / 2 ft bulbous head, and very short, beaklike Okhotsk, Hudson Bay, Gulf of St. Lawrence
(4–5 m) jaws. They are dappled gray above and
WEIGHT Up to 1.7 pale or white beneath. The function With its distinctive, yellowish white rivers. They are remarkably sociable and
tons (1.5 metric tons) of the narwhal’s tusk is unclear. It coloration, the beluga or white whale vocal, making a range of different
HABITAT Polar waters, may be used for ritual combat is easy to identify. In overall shape it is sounds, including trills, clicks, and
open leads in sea ice during the breeding season, or similar to its close relative the narwhal chirps. In the days of wooden
DISTRIBUTION Arctic Ocean, north as far as Svalbard even as a navigational aid, as it (see left), although it has no tusk. Its sailing-ships, these sounds were easily
and Franz Josef Land is packed with nerves. color changes with age: newborn audible through hulls—earning belugas
belugas are dark gray, and it can take the nickname “canary of the seas.”
The male narwhal is instantly them up to ten years to assume the Formerly abundant throughout the
recognizable by its unicorn-like adult color, which comes with sexual Arctic, belugas have been reduced to
tusk, which is up to 10 ft (3 m) long. maturity. Belugas are slow swimmers localized populations by centuries of OCEAN LIFE
A highly modified upper tooth, and feed on a wide variety of fish and hunting. They are still hunted today,
other animals. They often live close although on a reduced scale, but they
inshore during summer months and face growing threats from pollution
may enter the lower reaches of large and shipping traffic.