by: Dagmar Fertl
The name for this dolphin comes from the Greek kephale for "head" and rhynchos for "nose" or "snout" because the snout, which is about half the length of the skull, is well-differentiated from the rest of the head. Captain Haviside (the first "e" was added in error) was the employee of the British East India Company who carried the type specimen from the Cape of Good Hope to England in 1827.
This species is a stocky dolphin with a short, blunt snout and blunt-tipped flippers. The body is mostly gray, with a dark cape, which starts at the blowhole and is narrow until it widens to dip low on the side behind the dorsal fin. There is also some white around the flippers. Several predominately white individuals have been seen.
Heaviside's dolphins reach about 1.7 m in length.
These dolphins are found on the west coast of southern Africa.
Very little is known of the biology of this species. They are seen mainly in small numbers (less than 10). Heaviside's dolphins are known to eat various types of fish and cephalopods.
Gillnets, trawls, and purse seines take animals, but in unknown numbers. There may also be some direct hunting by harpoon.
Insufficiently known.
Best, P.B. and R.B. Abernethy. 1994. Heaviside's dolphin Cephalorhynchus heavisidii (Gray, 1828). Handbook of marine mammals, vol. 5: the first book of dolphins (S.H. Ridgway and R. Harrison, eds) Academic Press, London. Pp. 289-310.
Jefferson, T.A., Curry, B.E., Leatherwood, S. and J.A. Powell. 1997. Dolphins and porpoises of West Africa: A review of records (Cetacea: Delphinidae, Phocoenidae). Mammalia, v61 i1 pp 87-108 (22).
Jefferson, T.A. Leatherwood, S. and M.A. Webber. 1994. FAO Species Identification Guide, Marine Mammals of the World. FAO of the United Nations, Rome.
Leatherwood, S. and R.R. Reeves. 1987. The Sierra Club Handbook of Whales and Dolphins. Sierra Club Books, San Fransisco.
URL for this page: http://csiwhalesalive.org/csiheavisides.html