African Marine Mammals

Hector's beaked whale

Mesoplodon hectori

by: Dagmar Fertl

The name:

The word Mesoplodon is from the Greek mesos for "middle", hopla for "arms" and odon for "tooth". These words in combination roughly translates to "armed with a tooth in the middle of the jaw". This species was also named after J. Hector, the curator of the Colonial Museum in Wellington, New Zealand, where the type specimen for this species was described and housed.

The look:

This beaked whale has a single pair of moderately small, flattened, triangular teeth located near the tip of the lower jaw. These teeth are seen only in the males. These are dark, gray-brown whales with light gray undersides and scratches often covering the body.

The size:

The maximum known size is 4.3 m.

Location in Africa:

The only records of this species in African waters are off of South Africa.

Interesting facts:

This species are mostly sighted in pairs and is known to feed on squid.

Human impacts:

Human impacts in African waters are unknown.

IUCN Status:

Insufficiently known.

To learn more about Gray's beaked whales try these sources:

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.

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URL for this page: http://csiwhalesalive.org/csihectors.html