Longman's beaked whale (tropical bottlenose whale)
Indopacetus pacificus
Valid name.
- English
- Longman's beaked whale (tropical bottlenose whale)
- Scientific
- Indopacetus pacificus
- Dhivehi
- No recorded Dhivehi name
- Group
- Beaked whales
- Maximum size
- About 6-7 m
- Depth and habitat
- Deep oceanic waters, typically over 1,000 m
- IUCN status
- LC · Least ConcernLeast Concern (LC), assessed 2020
Description
A large beaked whale with a bulging forehead and a short, distinct beak, a brownish-grey body and a fairly prominent dorsal fin. It travels in tight groups that can number dozens, larger than most beaked whales. It is a deep diver that feeds on squid. Until the early 2000s it was known only from two skulls.
In the Maldives
Once the world's least-known whale, it was redescribed in 2003 partly from a stranding in the Maldives, and some of the first photos of live animals came from Maldivian waters. A complete skeleton is held at the Marine Research Centre (now MMRI) in Malé.
Sources
- sealifebase.se /summary/Indopacetus-pacificus.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:Tropical_bottlenose_whale.jpg
Dhivehi name source: No Dhivehi name found in the cetacean literature reviewed (Anderson 2005; Anderson et al. 2012), FishBase/SeaLifeBase or Dhivehi Wikipedia.