by: Dagmar Fertl
This animal's name is from the Greek pepon for "melon, gourd," and kephale for "head". Electra was a nymph of Greek mythology.
Melon-headed whales literally have a head that looks like a melon, with a very subtle beak. If you look at the head from profile, it smoothly curves downward. If you look down on top of it, it appears quite triangular. The flippers are slim, long, and generally pointed at the tips. They have a large number of small slender teeth (21-25 in each jaw). The lips are often white. The body is dark gray to black in color, with a white urogenital patch. There is a triangular "mask" on the face of these whales, as well as a cape that dips low below the dorsal fin, and a light stripe from the blowhole to the snout tip.
They can reach 2.75 m in length with the maximum weight being 272 kg.
These animals are seen along most of Africa, between 40 degrees North and 35 degrees South. They are not reported for the Red or Mediterranean Seas, or further north than Morocco.
These are highly social whales, seen swimming in large groups of a few hundred. They may also be seen swimming in association with other species, especially Fraser's dolphins. Melon-headed whales feed on squid and small fish.
Around the world, this species is taken in purse seine and driftnet fisheries, as well as some directed fisheries.
Insufficiently known.
Perryman, W.L., Au, D.W.K., Leatherwood, S. and T.A. Jefferson. 1994. Melon-headed whale Peponocephala electra (Gray, 1846). In: Handbook of marine mammals, vol.5: the first book of dolphins. (S.H. Ridgway and R. Harrison, eds.) Academic Press, London. Pp. 363-386.
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/csimelon-headed.html