No photo available
Pygmy killer whale
Feresa attenuata
Valid name.
- English
- Pygmy killer whale
- Scientific
- Feresa attenuata
- Dhivehi
- No recorded Dhivehi name
- Group
- Dolphins
- Maximum size
- Up to about 2.6 m
- Depth and habitat
- Deep oceanic waters
- IUCN status
- LC · Least ConcernLeast Concern (LC), assessed 2017
Description
A small, dark grey to black dolphin with a rounded head, no beak, white lips and often a white patch on the belly. It looks very like the melon-headed whale but has rounded flipper tips and a more rounded head. It lives in small, close-knit groups and is known to attack other dolphins. It feeds on squid and fish.
In the Maldives
Rare in the Maldives (0.2% of encounters); first reported from Maldivian waters by Anderson (1990).
Sources
- sealifebase.se /summary/Feresa-attenuata.html
- mammalwatching.com /wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Maldives-cetaceans-review-2012.pdf
- mrc.gov.mv /assets/Uploads/2005-Observations-of-cetaceans-in-the-Maldives-1990-20
- commons.wikimedia.org /wiki/File:Pygmy_killer_whales_(Feresa_attenuata)_off_of_Guam_(anim252
Dhivehi name source: No Dhivehi name found in the cetacean literature reviewed (Anderson 2005; Anderson et al. 2012), FishBase/SeaLifeBase or Dhivehi Wikipedia.