Rapid Fire
World’s Rarest Whale
- 16 Jul 2024
- 1 min read
Recently, New Zealand scientists may have made a breakthrough as the country’s conservation agency announced that a creature found washed up on a South Island beach is likely a spade-toothed whale.
- The spade-toothed whales considered the rarest in the world, have never been observed alive, which means their population size, diet, and habitat in the vast southern Pacific Ocean remain largely mysterious.
- The first spade-toothed whale bones were found in 1872 on New Zealand’s Pitt Island.
- The latest discovered species, a five-meter-long beaked whale, was identified by its colour patterns and the shape of its skull, beak, and teeth after washing ashore.
- The researchers will collaborate with local Maori tribes to determine how it will be studied.
- Whales are revered as sacred taonga by New Zealand's Indigenous people, with past treaties recognizing them as "legal persons," though not legally binding globally.
- IUCN Status: Data Deficient (DD)
Read more: Sperm Whales
