Berardius bairdii

Baird's beaked whale, whose foreign name is Baird's beaked whale, may be the largest of all beaked whales.

The appearance of the Bel's beaked whale is so similar to that of Aldrich's beaked whale that some people believe that the two are the same species. However, their habitats are isolated from each other, and Bell's beaked whales may be slightly larger. Bel's beaked whale is better known. Like Albedo's beaked whales, both sexes have protruding teeth, but in older whales the protruding teeth may be worn down to the gum surface. The pair of teeth in the front are particularly prominent. Under the dazzling sunlight, they often appear shiny and white in response to their dark skin color and the surrounding sea water. Although its range does not overlap with that of the southern bottlenose whale, which is found in the eastern tropical Pacific, the two may be confused. Beaked whale calves may also be confused with other smaller species of beaked whales.

They stay away from boats in hunting areas, but are more accessible in other areas. Low, tree-like jets are sometimes clearly visible. When they rise to breathe, their foreheads and beaks often break through the water first. The blowhole usually disappears before the dorsal fin emerges. The entire swarm is so tightly packed that it floats and puffs together. Generally the emergence time does not exceed 5 minutes. We have observed peeping, tail slapping, floating, and jumping (rarely).

Bay's beaked whales live in groups of 5 to 20 individuals, but sometimes groups of up to 50 individuals can be seen. Bell's beaked whales are deep divers. Deep dives usually last 25 to 35 minutes, with the longest dive lasting 67 minutes. The interval between dives is 1 to 14 minutes. The sprays are low, round, and conspicuous, and often come out quickly one after another.

Belle's beaked whales mainly feed on benthic fish (such as deep-sea cod family Moridae and long-tailed cod family Macrouridae) and cephalopods, and occasionally eat oceanic fish such as mackerel, sardines, and saury.

Bel's beaked whales have killer whale tooth marks on their flippers and tail blades, suggesting that they may have been hunted by killer whales. There are whale lice and stalked barnacles attached to the teeth and whale lice on the skin. A large number of rough tail nematodes are found in the stomach, liver, sebum and kidneys.

Males become sexually mature at ages 6 to 11, with a maximum age of about 84 years. Females become sexually mature at 10 to 15 years old, with a maximum age of about 54 years. Among sexually mature individuals, females account for about 23%, which also indicates that females have a shorter life span than males. Females can ovulate throughout their lives, on average once every 2 years. There is no evidence that females have a post-reproductive period. The peak calving period is in March and April. A newborn whale calf is about 4.5 meters long.

Three subpopulations of Belvedere's beaked whales have been recognized in the western North Pacific (Sea of Japan, Sea of Okhotsk, and the rest of the western North Pacific), where they have been fished for centuries. There are approximately 1,100 Beaked Whales in the eastern North Pacific, including 228 (CV=51%) on the west coast of the United States (Barlow et al. 2006, Caretta et al. 2006).

Japan began hunting Bel's beaked whales in the 17th century, on a small scale. After World War II, there was a period of peak hunting intensity, with more than 300 animals caught annually. The International Whaling Commission's hunting quota for the Japanese whaling industry is 8 whales in the Sea of Japan, 2 whales in the southern Sea of Okhotsk, and 52 whales on the Pacific coast. Only the population of Belle's beaked whales in Japanese waters has been surveyed, and the number is estimated to be about 7,000. Among them, 5029 are on the Pacific coast, 1260 in the waters east of Japan, and 660 in the South Sea of Okhotsk (Miyashita 1986, Kasuya 2002, Barlowet al. 2006). The data may be underestimated because visual inspection usually cannot reflect the long-term diving of whales and the insignificant The actual situation of buoyancy (Barlow 1999).

Listed in Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).

Included in China's "List of National Key Protected Wild Animals": National Class II protected animals (effective on December 10, 1988, cetaceans * other cetaceans)

Listed on The IUCN Red List: Data Deficient (DD), 2008 assessment.

Protect wild animals and eliminate wild game.

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Distributed in the temperate North Pacific and the adjacent Sea of ​​Japan, Sea of ​​Okhotsk and Bering Sea, mainly in the deep waters of the continental slope. Its distribution area extends southward in the eastern Pacific to the southern coast of the Gulf of California below 30°N, and in the western Pacific to the coast of Honshu Island, Japan at 34°N. It may appear in the floating ice belt in the northern Sea of ​​Okhotsk.
Origin: Canada, Japan, North Korea, South Korea, Mexico, Russia, and the United States.
Wandering area: China. In China, it is mainly distributed in the East China Sea and Zhejiang (Zhoushan).
Bai's beaked whales appear in the warm waters of Japan and California from June to August, and swim to the waters of British Columbia in September. In autumn, they migrate north to the Bering Sea. Winter in the cold waters near the Aleutian Islands. This migration pattern may be related to the seasonal distribution of squid. They prefer deep waters below 1,000

The adult body length is 10~12 meters, and the largest individual reported is 12.8 meters. The tubular beak is long and obvious, and the lower jaw protrudes significantly in front of the upper jaw. There is a horizontal fold between the beak and the forehead. There is a pair of "V"-shaped throat grooves in the throat between the two lower jaws, and there are several pairs of smaller auxiliary throat grooves between the throat grooves. The dorsal fin is small, triangular or sickle-shaped, located about 2/3 of the back of the body. The tail lobe is wide, with a notch in the center, but some individuals do not have a notch. The flippers are small and blunt at the tip. The blowhole is crescent-shaped, with the concave surface facing forward. The whole body is dark brown, and the ventral side is lighter and has irregular white spots. There are usually a large number of light-colored tooth marks of the same species of whales on the back of the body, and often on the bottom of the b