Mammals of the WorldDwarf Sperm Whale
Kogia sima
- Order
- Artiodactyla
- Family
- Kogiidae
- Genus
- Kogia
- IUCN status
- LC
- Distribution
- American Samoa|Angola|Anguilla|Antigua and Barbuda|Argentina|Aruba|Australia|Bahamas|Bangladesh|Barbados|Belize|Benin|Bermuda|Bonaire|Sint Eustatius|Saba|Brazil|Brunei|Cape Verde|Cambodia|Cameroon|Canada|Cayman Islands|Chile|Cocos Islands|Colombia|Comoros|Republic of the Congo|Democratic Republic of the Congo|Cook Islands|Costa Rica|Cuba|Curaçao|Cote d'Ivoire|Djibouti|Dominica|Dominican Republic|Ecuador|Galápagos Islands|El Salvador|Equatorial Guinea|Fiji|French Guiana|French Polynesia|Gabon|Gambia|Ghana|Grenada|Guadeloupe|Guam|Guatemala|Guinea|Guinea-Bissau|Guyana|Haiti|Honduras|India|Indonesia|Iran|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|New Caledonia|New Zealand|Nicaragua|Nigeria|Niue|Norfolk Island|Northern Marianas|Oman|Pakistan|Palau|Panama|Papua New Guinea|Peru|Philippines|Pitcairn|Portugal|Madeira|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 Africa|Spain|Canary Islands|Sri Lanka|Suriname|Taiwan|China|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?|Sudan?
- Realm
- Marine
Other names: Owen's Pygmy Whale|Snub-nosed Cachalot
About this species
- Size
- 2–2.7m
- Weight
- 136–272kg
- Diet
- Mainly squid, taken by suction; some crustaceans
- Habitat
- Continental shelves and slopes of temperate and tropical oceans
- Range
- Worldwide in warm seas; reported from South Asia, South Asia, Oman and Thailand in the Indian Ocean
- Gestation
- Probably about 9.5 months
The dwarf sperm whale is a small whale, 2–2.7 m long and 136–272 kg, that is grey with a square head, a small jaw and a robust body. It is dark grey or blue-grey with a lighter underside and a pale crescent between the eye and the flipper, called a false gill. It looks very like the pygmy sperm whale, from which it is distinguished mainly by the dorsal fin, which is nearer the middle of the back. It has the shortest snout of any modern whale, and when startled it can eject a cloud of red-brown fluid (Wikipedia, general species account).
It lives in temperate and tropical oceans worldwide, especially on continental shelves and slopes, and in the Indian Ocean it has been reported from South Asia, among other countries. It is a suction feeder that mainly eats squid, in small pods of typically one to four animals. Orcas and large sharks prey on it, and it is hunted in small numbers around Asia. A newborn is about 1 m long and gestation is probably about 9.5 months (Wikipedia, general species account).
Description: Wildlife of Korea guide, Wildlife of Everywhere (wildlifeofeverywhere.com); general species information paraphrased from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)