PIGMY WHALE

Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 197, 17 May 1941, Page 15

PIGMY WHALE

Discovered In South Canterbury

UNUSUAL VISITOR

Dominion Special Service. OHRISTOHUROH, May 16.

Discovered stranded near the end of Pleasant Point spit recently, a rare pigmy siterm whale has been taken over' by the Canterbury Museum authorities. After the specimen had been identified later, however, someone hacked off about six inches of the jaw, seriously mutilating it, and the museum authorities are now trying to find the missing piece. When members- of the museum staff bad a look at the whale on Friday they identified it as a rare inhabitant of the southern seas, named by scientists Kogia breviceps, but known to whalers as the pigmy sperm whale. Few specimens have been obtained and little is known of the life story of this cetacean, one of the toothed whales and practically a miniature—growing to a maximum length of 15ft. • —of the great 75ft. sperm whale dr cachalot.

The pigmy that came ashore at Pleasant Point is a female, and only 10ft. long, but had 10 teeth on each side of the narrow lower jaw, which, as in the cachalot, seems disproportionately small compared with the bulky bead. Though it lay in a spot difficult of access, the body was successfully loaded on to a break-down truck on 'Saturday. The specimen is now in cold storage awaiting scientific attention.

While at the spit, the museum party saw the remains of what was probably a southern sea elephant, one of the mightiest of all seals. Apparently some 12 months ago two of these huge creatures, whose home is in the Antarctic, entered the estuary and went to make their way back to the sea over the spit. One died on the way, and subsequently fire swept through the scrub, leaving only a charred skeleton. This measures 16ft. long and 4ft. across the flippers.