Adult Male © Phil Coles

Quick Facts
Length Around 7m Distribution
Probably circumpolar in the cold temperate waters of the Southern hemisphere
Weight ? Identification
Rounded melon with well defined beak. Contrasting colouration – dark cape and broad white bands rising from pale underside. The only beaked whale with a complete set of functional teeth
Diet Deep sea fish and squid Threats Unknown.
Group size ?  

Tasmans Beaked whale is unique among the beaked whales as it has a set of apparently functional (in a feeding capacity) teeth. In total it has 17 – 21 pairs of teeth in the upper-jaw and 17 – 29 in the lower, a similar arrangement to that found in a number of dolphins and porpoises. Although the diet of this species has only been examined from the study of a handful of stranded animals, it has been suggested that this dentition reflects a primarily fish rather than cephalopod (squid) diet. This dentition is also likely to be similar to that of ancestral beaked whales, which are likely to have had a complete set of teeth and only have lost them after the evolution of their unique ‘sucking’ feeding strategy. Like other beaked whales there is one pronounced pair of teeth that protrude from the tip of the lower jaw in mature males. This is a species of the southern oceans with strandings recorded from south Australia, New Zealand, Chile and Argentina.

This is a fairly large species, similar in size to Cuvier’s beaked whale. Overall is profile is similar to that of a bottlenose whale, with a long, pronounced beaked and rounded melon. From descriptions of freshly stranded animals and a few reported sightings at sea it seems to have distinctive pigmentation with a pale forehead and a dark cape that is interrupted by variable pale swaths of colour from the underside – one above the flipper and the other from the dorsal fin across the remainder of the tail stock.
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