Mammals of the WorldBryde's Whale
Balaenoptera brydei
- Order
- Artiodactyla
- Family
- Balaenopteridae
- Genus
- Balaenoptera
- IUCN status
- NE
- Distribution
- American Samoa|Angola|Anguilla|Antigua and Barbuda|Argentina|Aruba|Australia|Bahamas|Bahrain|Bangladesh|Barbados|Belize|Benin|Bermuda|Bonaire|Sint Eustatius|Saba|Brazil|Cape Verde|Cambodia|Cameroon|Cayman Islands|Chile|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|El Salvador|Equatorial Guinea|Eritrea|Fiji|French Guiana|French Polynesia|Gabon|Gambia|Ghana|Grenada|Guadeloupe|Guam|Guatemala|Guinea|Guinea-Bissau|Guyana|Haiti|Honduras|India|Indonesia|Iran|Iraq|Jamaica|Japan|Kenya|Kiribati|North Korea|South Korea|Kuwait|Liberia|Madagascar|Malaysia|Maldives|Marshall Islands|Martinique|Mauritania|Mauritius|Mexico|Micronesia|Montserrat|Morocco|Mozambique|Myanmar|Namibia|Nauru|New Caledonia|New Zealand|Nicaragua|Nigeria|Niue|Northern Marianas|Oman|Pakistan|Palau|Panama|Papua New Guinea|Peru|Philippines|Pitcairn|Puerto Rico|Qatar|Réunion|Saint Barthélemy|Saint Kitts and Nevis|Saint Lucia|Christmas Island|Sint Maarten|Saint Vincent and the Grenadines|Samoa|São Tomé and Príncipe|Saudi Arabia|Senegal|Seychelles|Sierra Leone|Singapore|Solomon Islands|South Africa|Sri Lanka|Taiwan|China|Tanzania|Thailand|East Timor|Togo|Tonga|Trinidad and Tobago|Turks and Caicos Islands|Tuvalu|United Arab Emirates|United States|Uruguay|Vanuatu|Venezuela|Vietnam|United States Virgin Islands|British Virgin Islands|Wallis and Futuna|Yemen
- Realm
- Marine
Other names: Ordinary Bryde's Whale|Large Bryde's Whale
About this species
- Size
- Up to about 15m
- Diet
- Fish, planktonic crustaceans and cephalopods; mostly euphausiids in some areas
- Range
- Indian Ocean north of about 35°S; tropical and warm-temperate seas
Bryde's whale, or the Bryde's whale complex, putatively comprises three, and possibly four, species of rorqual, and its classification is unclear because of a lack of research. The largest measured was a 14.95 m female, and the longest recorded for each sex reached 14.5–15.5 m; the coastal form near East Asia is smaller. The Sittang whale, or Eden's whale, is a smaller form that is dealt with separately on this site (Wikipedia, general species account).
It occurs throughout the Indian Ocean north of about 35°S. It usually appears alone or in pairs, occasionally in loose groups of up to 20 around feeding areas. It feeds on a wide variety of fish, planktonic crustaceans and cephalopods, with the prey differing by place and season. In the Pacific and northern Indian Ocean it has been seen using tread-water or trap feeding. It sometimes makes short, powerful, low-frequency calls that resemble a human moan (Wikipedia, general species account).
Description: Wildlife of Korea guide, Wildlife of Everywhere (wildlifeofeverywhere.com); general species information paraphrased from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)