A necropsy of a shark whale, thought to be the world's rarest whale species, is being carried out in New Zealand, marking the first time a complete specimen has been examined.
The spade-toothed whale is a species of beaked whale that gets its name from the resemblance of its teeth to the spade-like “lens blades” once used to strip whales of blubber. Only seven cases have been recorded since the 1800s, and all but one were found in New Zealand.
A five-metre male whale washed ashore in Otago on the South Island in July, and cetacean experts relied entirely on a set of bones and tissues recovered from specimens discovered decades apart. felt excited.
International and local scientists met with local Maori people on Monday to begin researching the whale at the Invermey Agre Research Center in the Dunedin suburb of Mosgiel.
Anton van Heerden, scientific advisor to the Department of Conservation and a world expert on spade whales, said the atmosphere at the center was one of “respect” for the animal.
“We work with dead animals, which tell us how they died. [lived]”And it's also about unraveling all the life stories of the people involved,” he said.
Van Helden, lead author of the paper that gave the species its name, said the opportunity to study the whale was an “amazing moment.”
“Beaked whales are the most enigmatic group of large mammals on Earth and are deep divers rarely seen in the ocean.”
“This is the rarest specimen, only the seventh known in the world, and the first opportunity to perform a dissection like this,” he said.
The first example of a spade-toothed whale was discovered in 1874, and the species was described based on a lower jaw bone and two teeth found in the Chatham Islands off the east coast of New Zealand's South Island. DNA taken from tissue from two specimens (a mother cow and a calf) buried in 2010 has allowed scientists to explain what it looks like. In 2017, another specimen washed up in a very remote area of Waipiro Bay, north of Gisborne, and was buried before being dissected.
in 2012 study In a paper on spade-toothed whales published in Current Biology, scientists point out that several species of beaked whales live in the South Pacific, home to some of the world's deepest ocean trenches. According to the study, cetaceans are “extremely deep divers” and are thought to spend their time hunting squid and small fish far below the surface.
The inspection of the whale is expected to take five days. Researchers are primarily interested in describing species and understanding their ecology.
They will systematically examine the arrangement of the whales' stomachs (which vary between beaked whale species), how they produce sound, the number of vertebrae, the weight of their blubber, and the structure of their throats. The results can also provide a variety of information. How to deal with human threats to the species.
Scientists are working with Otakou's local Maori people, who have customary rights to the area where the whales stranded. Research contributor Tumai Cassidy said Māori considered whales to be taonga, sacred treasures of cultural significance.
“Whales are very important animals in our culture… their arrival in Aotearoa [New Zealand] We are deeply connected to whales, and like other cultures around the world, we utilize various parts of their bodies. ”
Cassidy said Otakou Māori have been closely involved in this process since the whales came ashore, and the opportunity to contribute indigenous knowledge and collaborate with Western science is a “great privilege and a huge opportunity”. he said.
Once completed, Otakou Māori will donate the whale skeleton to Otago Museum, while the jawbone will be kept for cultural purposes.
