Mammals of the WorldPygmy Sperm Whale
Kogia breviceps
- Order
- Artiodactyla
- Family
- Kogiidae
- Genus
- Kogia
- IUCN status
- LC
- Distribution
- American Samoa|Angola|Anguilla|Antigua and Barbuda|Argentina|Aruba|Australia|Bahamas|Bangladesh|Barbados|Belgium|Belize|Benin|Bermuda|Bonaire|Sint Eustatius|Saba|Brazil|Brunei|Cape Verde|Cambodia|Cameroon|Canada|Cayman Islands|Chile|China|Cocos Islands|Colombia|Comoros|Republic of the Congo|Democratic Republic of the Congo|Cook Islands|Costa Rica|Cuba|Curaçao|Cote d'Ivoire|Denmark|Djibouti|Dominica|Dominican Republic|Ecuador|El Salvador|Equatorial Guinea|Fiji|France|French Guiana|French Polynesia|Gabon|Gambia|Germany|Ghana|Grenada|Guadeloupe|Guam|Guatemala|Guinea|Guinea-Bissau|Guyana|Haiti|Honduras|India|Indonesia|Iran|Ireland|Jamaica|Japan|Kenya|Kiribati|North Korea|South Korea|Liberia|Madagascar|Malaysia|Maldives|Marshall Islands|Martinique|Mauritania|Mauritius|Mayotte|Mexico|Micronesia|Montserrat|Morocco|Mozambique|Myanmar|Namibia|Nauru|Netherlands|New Caledonia|New Zealand|Nicaragua|Nigeria|Niue|Norfolk Island|Northern Marianas|Oman|Pakistan|Palau|Panama|Papua New Guinea|Peru|Philippines|Pitcairn|Portugal|Azores|Puerto Rico|Réunion|Saint Barthélemy|Saint Helena|Saint Kitts and Nevis|Saint Lucia|Sint Maarten|Saint Vincent and the Grenadines|Samoa|São Tomé and Príncipe|Senegal|Seychelles|Sierra Leone|Singapore|Solomon Islands|Somalia|South Sudan|Spain|Sri Lanka|Suriname|Taiwan|Tanzania|Thailand|East Timor|Togo|Tokelau|Tonga|Trinidad and Tobago|Turks and Caicos Islands|Tuvalu|United Arab Emirates|United Kingdom|United States|Uruguay|Vanuatu|Venezuela|Vietnam|British Virgin Islands|United States Virgin Islands|Wallis and Futuna|Yemen|Eritrea?|Russia?
- Realm
- Marine
Other names: Lesser Cachalot|Lesser Sperm Whale|Short-headed Sperm Whale
About this species
- Size
- About 3.5–3.8m at maturity; 1.2m at birth
- Weight
- About 400–450kg
- Habitat
- Tropical and temperate waters
- Range
- Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans
- Litter size
- 1 calf, born head first
- Gestation
- 9–11 months
The pygmy sperm whale is one of two living species in the family Kogiidae. It is bluish grey on the back and sides, with a creamy, occasionally pinkish underside, and it grows to about 3.5–3.8 m and 400–450 kg. A newborn is about 1.2 m long and weighs about 50 kg. It is not often sighted at sea, and most of what is known comes from stranded specimens (Wikipedia, general species account).
It is found throughout tropical and temperate waters of the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. It hunts by echolocation and has an unusually large hyoid bone, presumably for suction feeding. Gestation averages 9–11 months and, unusually for a cetacean, the single calf is born head first; calves are weaned at about a year. Great white sharks and killer whales may prey on it, and it has never been hunted on a large scale (Wikipedia, general species account).
Description: Wildlife of India guide, Wildlife of Everywhere (wildlifeofeverywhere.com); general species information paraphrased from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)