Biological data of two Hector`s Beaked Whales, Mesoplodon hectori, stranded in Buenos Aires Province, Argentina.

CAPPOZZO, H.L; NEGRI, M.F.; GIANGGIOBE, A.; SAUBIDET, A.

THE LATIN AMERICAN JOURNAL OF AQUATIC MAMMALS

SOLAMAC

Lugar: Rio de Janeiro; Año: 2005 vol. 4 p. 113 - 128

1676-7497

Beaked whales or ziphiids are the least known cetaceans, and they are among the least known of all mammalian groups. In August and September of 2002, two beaked whales (a male and a female) stranded alive in the coast of the Argentine Sea, 110 km away from each other. The specimens died briefly after the stranding and their bodies were collected for further dissection and analysis at the Estación Hidrobiológica de Quequén (female) and at the Fundación Mar del Plata Aquarium (male). Many beaked whales are very similar in appearance, especially the ones of the genus Mesoplodon. The specimens were identified as ziphiids of the genus Mesoplodon; further measurements of the skulls, shape and location of teeth (Moore, 1963), and a genetic analysis (to be published separately) and comparison with the data at the GenBank confirmed both specimens as Hector?s Beaked Whales, Mesoplodon hectori. Even when the information obtained was not completely homogeneous, basic biological data was found and is presented hereby in order to fill some gaps of the knowledge about this very rare species.