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Whale Surfacing Behavior
Cetacean surfacing behaviour is a grouping of movement types that cetaceans make at the water's surface in addition to breathing. Cetaceans have developed and use surface behaviours for many functions such as display, feeding and communication. All regularly observed members of the order Cetacea, including whales, dolphins and porpoises, show a range of surfacing behaviours. Cetacea is usually split into two suborders, Odontoceti and Mysticeti, based on the presence of teeth or baleen plates in adults respectively. However, when considering behaviour, Cetacea can be split into whales (cetaceans more than 10 m long such as sperm and most baleen whales) and dolphins and porpoises (all Odontocetes less than 10 m long including orca tp://ftp.fao.org/docrep/fao/009/t0725e/t0725e10.pdf FAO Marine Mammals of the World, Suborder Odontoceti.) as many behaviours are correlated with size. Although some behaviours such as spyhopping, logging and lobtailing occur in both groups, others such ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Southern Right Whale
The southern right whale (''Eubalaena australis'') is a baleen whale, one of three species classified as right whales belonging to the genus ''Eubalaena''. Southern right whales inhabit oceans south of the Equator, between the latitudes of 20° and 60° south. In 2009 the global population was estimated to be approximately 13,600. Taxonomy Right whales were first classified in the genus '' Balaena'' in 1758 by Carl Linnaeus, who at the time considered all right whales (including the bowhead) to be a single species. In the 19th and 20th centuries the family Balaenidae was the subject of great taxonometric debate. Authorities have repeatedly recategorised the three populations of right whale plus the bowhead whale, as one, two, three or four species, either in a single genus or in two separate genera. In the early whaling days, they were all thought to be a single species, ''Balaena mysticetus''. The southern right whale was initially described as ''Balaena australis'' by De ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sowerby's Beaked Whale
Sowerby's beaked whale (''Mesoplodon bidens''), also known as the North Atlantic or North Sea beaked whale, is a species of toothed whale. It was the first mesoplodont whale to be described. James Sowerby, an English naturalist and artist, first described the species in 1804 from a skull obtained from a male that had stranded in the Moray Firth, Scotland, in 1800. He named it ''bidens'', which derives from the two teeth present in the jaw, now known to be a very common feature among the genus. Physical description File:Mesoplodon bidens.jpg, Profile of an adult female File:Mesoplodon bidens British mammals (Pl. 46) (21866206616).jpg, Adult male File:Head of male Mesoplodon bidens.jpg, Adult male head, showing teeth. Sowerby's beaked whale has a typical body shape for the genus, and is mainly distinguished by the male's dual teeth positioned far back in the mouth. The whale's beak is moderately long, and the melon is slightly convex. The colouration pattern is a grey with light ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Baleen Whale
Baleen whales ( systematic name Mysticeti), also known as whalebone whales, are a parvorder of carnivorous marine mammals of the infraorder Cetacea ( whales, dolphins and porpoises) which use keratinaceous baleen plates (or "whalebone") in their mouths to sieve planktonic creatures from the water. Mysticeti comprises the families Balaenidae ( right and bowhead whales), Balaenopteridae (rorquals and the gray whale), and Cetotheriidae (the pygmy right whale). There are currently 16 species of baleen whales. While cetaceans were historically thought to have descended from mesonychids, molecular evidence instead supports them as a clade of even-toed ungulates (Artiodactyla). Baleen whales split from toothed whales (Odontoceti) around 34 million years ago. Baleen whales range in size from the and pygmy right whale to the and blue whale, the largest known animal to have ever existed. They are sexually dimorphic. Baleen whales can have streamlined or large bodies, depend ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rorqual
Rorquals () are the largest group of baleen whales, which comprise the family Balaenopteridae, containing ten extant species in three genera. They include the largest animal that has ever lived, the blue whale, which can reach , and the fin whale, which reaches ; even the smallest of the group, the northern minke whale, reaches . Rorquals take their name from French , which derives from the Norwegian word : the first element originated from the Old Norse name for this type of whale, , probably related to the Norse word for "red", and the second from the Norse word ''hvalr'' meaning "whale" in general. The family name Balaenopteridae is from the type genus, '' Balaenoptera''. Characteristics All members of the family have a series of longitudinal folds of skin running from below the mouth back to the navel (except the sei whale and common minke whale, which have shorter grooves). These furrows allow the mouth to expand immensely when feeding, "permitting them to engorge ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hal Whitehead
Hal Whitehead is a biologist specializing in the study of the sperm whale (''Physeter macrocephalus''). Whitehead is professor at Dalhousie University. The primary field research vessel of his laboratory is the ''Balaena'', a Valiant 40 ocean-going cruising boat, which normally does its work off the coast of Nova Scotia. Other marine mammals studied by Whitehead's laboratory include beluga whales The beluga whale () (''Delphinapterus leucas'') is an Arctic and sub-Arctic cetacean. It is one of two members of the family Monodontidae, along with the narwhal, and the only member of the genus ''Delphinapterus''. It is also known as the whi ..., pilot whales, northern bottlenose whales, and bottlenose dolphins. Research findings Whitehead's research is focused primarily upon the behavior, population biology, and ecology of the sperm whale. Topics include social structure, cultural transmission of behavior, as well as acoustic communicative behavior such as click trains. Selecte ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Humpback Juvenile Breach Sequence
Humpback may refer to: * Humpback whale * Humpback dolphin * Humpback salmon * Humpback bridge * Humpback, a common name for the fish '' Chanodichthys dabryi'' * Humpback, a variant of hunchback Kyphosis is an abnormally excessive convex curvature of the spine as it occurs in the thoracic and sacral regions. Abnormal inward concave ''lordotic'' curving of the cervical and lumbar regions of the spine is called lordosis. It can result ... {{disambiguation, fish Animal common name disambiguation pages ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cloudy Bay
Te Koko-o-Kupe / Cloudy Bay is located at the northeast of New Zealand's South Island, to the south of the Marlborough Sounds and north of Clifford Bay. In August 2014, the name Cloudy Bay, given by Captain Cook in 1770, was officially altered to Te Koko-o-Kupe / Cloudy Bay, with the Māori name recalling the early explorer Kupe scooping up oysters from the bay. The area lends its name to one of the best known New World white wines ( Cloudy Bay Vineyards Sauvignon Blanc) although the grapes used in production of that wine are grown in the Marlborough wine region further inland. Features The bay faces Cook Strait, stretching north-south over a distance of from the southern extremity of the Marlborough Sounds ( Port Underwood) to White Bluffs. Along its length is the delta of the Wairau River, which reaches the sea at two points. The southern of these forms an entrance to the Big Lagoon, just to the north of White Bluffs. The central point is known as the Wairau Diversion. Th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hector's Dolphin
Hector's dolphin (''Cephalorhynchus hectori'') is one of four dolphin species belonging to the genus '' Cephalorhynchus''. Hector's dolphin is the only cetacean endemic to New Zealand, and comprises two subspecies: ''C. h. hectori'', the more numerous subspecies, also referred to as South Island Hector's dolphin; and the critically endangered Māui dolphin (''C. h. maui''), found off the West Coast of the North Island. Etymology Hector's dolphin was named after Sir James Hector (1834–1907), who was the curator of the Colonial Museum in Wellington (now the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa). He examined the first specimen of the dolphin found by cephologists. The species was scientifically described by Belgian zoologist Pierre-Joseph van Beneden in 1881. Māori names for Hector's and Māui dolphin include ''tutumairekurai, tupoupou'' and ''popoto''. Description Hector's dolphin is the smallest dolphin species. Mature adults have a total length of and weigh .Slooten, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island country by area, covering . New Zealand is about east of Australia across the Tasman Sea and south of the islands of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga. The country's varied topography and sharp mountain peaks, including the Southern Alps, owe much to tectonic uplift and volcanic eruptions. New Zealand's capital city is Wellington, and its most populous city is Auckland. The islands of New Zealand were the last large habitable land to be settled by humans. Between about 1280 and 1350, Polynesians began to settle in the islands and then developed a distinctive Māori culture. In 1642, the Dutch explorer Abel Tasman became the first European to sight and record New Zealand. In 1840, representatives of the United Kingdom and Māori chiefs ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alaska
Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S., it borders the Canadian province of British Columbia and the Yukon territory to the east; it also shares a maritime border with the Russian Federation's Chukotka Autonomous Okrug to the west, just across the Bering Strait. To the north are the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas of the Arctic Ocean, while the Pacific Ocean lies to the south and southwest. Alaska is by far the largest U.S. state by area, comprising more total area than the next three largest states (Texas, California, and Montana) combined. It represents the seventh-largest subnational division in the world. It is the third-least populous and the most sparsely populated state, but by far the continent's most populous territory located mostly north of the 60th parallel, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Unimak Island
Unimak Island ( ale, Unimax, russian: Унимак) is the largest island in the Aleutian Islands chain of the U.S. state of Alaska. Geography It is the easternmost island in the Aleutians and, with an area of , the ninth largest island in the United States and the 134th largest island in the world. It is home to Mount Shishaldin, one of the ten most active volcanoes in the world. According to the United States Census Bureau, there were 64 people living on Unimak as of the 2000 census, all of them in the city of False Pass at the eastern end of the island. Cape Lutke is a headland on the island. Cape Pankof is located at the extreme southwest of the island. The Fisher Caldera is a volcanic crater in the west-central part of Unimak. Some characteristics include many volcanic cones and undrained lakes. It is named for Bernard Fisher, a U.S. Geological Survey geologist who was killed in Umnak Pass. Mount Westdahl, in elevation, is a stratovolcano of the Aleutian Rang ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
