Species: Ziphius cavirostris
Cuvier's Beaked Whale
Species
Encyclopedia of Puget Sound
Classification
Kingdom
Animalia
Phylum
Craniata
Class
Mammalia
Order
Cetacea
Family
Ziphiidae
Genus
Ziphius
NatureServe
Classification
Other Global Common Names
Zifio de Cuvier - baleine à bec de Cuvier
Informal Taxonomy
<p>Animals, Vertebrates - Mammals - Whales and Dolphins</p>
Formal Taxonomy
Animalia - Craniata - Mammalia - Cetacea - Ziphiidae - Ziphius
Ecology and Life History
Habitat Type Description
Marine
Migration
<p>false - false - false - Seasonal distribution is poorly known; apparently year-round resident in some areas (e.g., off New Zealand, the British Isles, western North America, and Japan) (Leatherwood and Reeves 1983).</p>
Non-migrant
false
Locally Migrant
false
Food Comments
Diet consists mainly of squid and open-ocean, mesopelagic, and deep-water fishes (Leatherwood and Reeves 1983, IUCN 1991).
Reproduction Comments
Smallest sexually mature individuals are a little over 5 m long, at which size males are apparently about 11 years old.
Ecology Comments
Solitary (adult males) or usually in tight schools of 3-10, sometimes as many as 25 (Leatherwood and Reeves 1983). In the eastern tropical Pacific, group size was 1-7 (IUCN 1991).
Length
610
Conservation Status
NatureServe Global Status Rank
G4
Global Status Last Reviewed
1996-11-15
Global Status Last Changed
1996-11-15
Distribution
Conservation Status Map
<img src="http://www.natureserve.org/explorer/servlet/GetMapGif?CA.BC=__&US.AK=S3&US.FL=SNR&US.GA=__&US.MD=__&US.NY=SU&US.NC=__&US.OR=__&US.SC=SNR&US.TX=S1" alt="Conservation Status Map" style="width: 475px; height: auto;" />
Global Range
Worldwide in all ocean basins from tropical to subpolar waters. Seldom seen alive; known mainly from occasional stranded specimens. Stranded specimens have been recorded from Cape Cod and the North Sea south to Tierra del Fuego and the Cape of Good Hope in the Atlantic, and from the southern Bering Sea south to Australia and New Zealand in the Pacific (the most frequently sighted medium-sized cetacean in the eastern tropical Pacific). Also Mediterranean, Caribbean, Sea of Japan, and Indian Ocean.