User:Watkins-Jorgensen/Cuvier's beaked whale

Cuvier Beaked Whales Ziphius cavirostris

Fos-sur-Mer which is in Bouches-du-Rhone. Fos-sur-Mer is directly on the sea ( which is what sur-Mer means, i.e.: on the sea).

"Zoologists did not realize the extant nature of the species until 1850, when Paul Gervais compared the type specimen to another that had stranded itself ..." They actually must mean Plage de Aresquiès or Aresquièrs. or Plage des Aresquièrs ( essentially Aresquièrs Beach) which is in Frontignan, and is in Hérault.

The Cuvier Beaked Whale

The Cuvier Beaked Whale Ziphius Cavirostris is a relatively small whale compared to the largest whales but large amongst the Ziphiidae "beaked" whales, and of "pelagic," namely deep water habits. It is truly remarkable for its records in diving deep, in one recorded instance close to 10,000 feet (9,724 feet) –– the deepest that a whale has been recorded diving. At the same time the Cuvier Beaked Whale has amazing records in staying underwater for great lengths of time; the longest time it was recorded as being underwater was close to four hours–– which is a world record. It is still unknown if this long diving record was a strategy the Cuvier Beaked Whale utilized to avoid ocean traffic, a reaction to sonar, or simply habitual.

The Cuvier Beaked Whale is described as being "shy" meaning that it avoids boats and even large crowds of its fellow whales, even other Cuvier Beaked Whales, managing instead to travel in small packs of from 3 to under 10, or even on its own. Usually the reports are in general that the single whales are old males. They are shy seeming to humans because they are self-sufficient and hard to observe, yet several intense studies have been made of them, especially around Hawaii by scientists where the same whales are frequently observed for upwards of ten years at a time and particularly by the Smithsonian under its former head in Marine Mammals and Cetaeology, Dr. James Mead. These whales inhabit almost all the seas and oceans of the Earth including the Mediterranean–– excepting the Arctic and the Antarctic, not seeming to enjoy the polar, colder seas.

All the beaked whales, the Ziphiidae, are rather enigmatic whales because so many of them are never sighted at sea and the best that can be seen of them is if they are beached or stranded. Stranded whales have often been analyzed for their skeleton and also the contents of their stomachs to find more about their mysterious habits. The Cuvier Beaked Whale is not so unsociable and extreme as some beaked whales and if a boat is not too large, or noisy and seemingly calm or stopped, will sometimes approach in a friendly manner. Also being deep water whales––pelagic–– they prefer to stay off the coast of the mainland unless there is no continental shelf and only a steep drop off the coast at the shore. This undoubtedly has to do with their marvelous diving propensities and talents. They are often known to habitually dive 1,000 feet down and frequently are down for an hour, leading researchers who have studied them to think they might have an ability to let their lungs collapse in the depths to contend with the water pressure.

Taxonomy and appearance

The first Cuvier Beaked Whale trace or skull was examined by Jean Léopold Nicolas Frédéric, Baron Cuvier, a naturalist known as Georges Cuvier in 1823 at Fos-sur-Mer, Bouches du Rhone, France, a small seaside town. Baron Cuvier thought the skull was a fossil because it was so unusual and had an odd shape. However, twenty-seven years later, in 1850 another beached specimen, a whale carcass, was found not far around the western part of the Mediterranean shore near Frontignan, at the beach of Aresquiès, Plage de Aresquiès,( or Aresquièrs,) in Hérault. Paul Gervais, a French paleontologist and zoologist examined the two skulls and discovered they were the same.

Cuvier Beaked whales are usually born weighing about 500 pounds, described as between 6.8 to slightly over 8 feet approximately, and as calves are black or dark blue with a white belly. The females reach maturity at about an average of 19-23 feet long, and perhaps 7 –12 years of age, according to Dr. Mead, (though some sources say up to 28 feet) and the males at 19-22.5 feet, ( varying sources say 27-29 feet) weighing about 2-3.5 tons. Females are thought to calve no more often than every six years. Other sources say the females reach the ability to mate at around 20 feet in length and males 18-20 feet. Both males and females have a rounded perhaps blimp-like extended ellipsoid body with a tapering, sturdy rounded shape. They are beautifully gray and have paler grey-to-white underbellies and heads and "beaks" which sometimes fade to pure white with age, especially in old males, but some females are also unexpectedly either gray or brown to russet colored.No two are alike! There is usually a darker ring around the eye in their white head, sometimes a set of semi-circles that are dark. The older whales tend to absorb some of the bone around their rostrum, from which comes their name cavirostris, because then it has a cavity which can be seen in the skull dissections of older and younger specimens. It is generally unknown why–– but it is imagined it serves some purpose in its deep diving possibilities. Because they develop a rich coating of diatoms the males are sometimes mistaken for being a fawn or light brown color, too. The Cuvier Beaked Whale is an odontocete or toothed whale. The males develop two tusks in their right and left corners of their lower jaw and have otherwise a set of peg-like teeth, say some scientists, but some say they have practically no, or vestigial teeth only, except for the males' two tusks. The females have these same teeth ––or lack of them––without the two warring tusks. The tusks are supposedly or possibly used for dueling–– though it has not been observed–– between the males, though it appears they may compete for females, but the tusks are possibly also used for fighting off other threats, such as orcas. The adults, especially the males, have many scars along their sides which become also a form of identification. The scars are thought to be the reminders of these male battles, or battles with predators, or fights with deep underwater squid, or, also possibly run-ins with the warm water "cookie-cutter" sharks, which may score them, or punch holes directly in their sides. They both have a falcate (curved like a sickle) dorsal fin set more than two thirds back on their bodies and flukes that might be or might not be slightly notched in the middle, and up to one-fourth of the body length. Cuvier Beaked Whales, like some other Ziphiidae or Beaked Whales have ingenious flippers that can fit into grooves in their sides, and not protrude, making them potentially more streamlined, with less resistance for diving. Both males and females have a discreet blowhole and blow to the front rather modestly, which is another reason that also makes them hard to track.

Because they dive deep in search of upwards of thirty types of squid, fish and crustaceans their jaws open in an ingenious way in order for them to create a sort of suction action whilst in a deep dive. This type of jaw and muscular construction makes them appear to have a smiling appearance, there seems to be a sort of hinge-like musculature and a lack of constricting restraining muscle to make it possible to scoop large amounts and suction it up at the same time, and this and their entire face is usually apparent when they surface. The explanation of the name cavirostris in Ziphius cavirostris, has to do with their curiously shaped skull that has an indent in it, and is shaped somewhat like a grooved bike helmet on top of a gently goose-like nose, giving it the "beak" name. All the Ziphiidae have this beaked appearance but the Cuvier Beaked Whale has a particularly gentle sloping head leading to melon and and smaller snout, or beak which gives them their nickname or alternative name Goose-Beaked Whale.

Lifestyle and habits

The Cuvier Beaked Whale has been analyzed by the contents of the stomachs of whales that have been beached or stranded between 1976 and 2016. Forty years of study yielded the results which elaborated on many mysteries. To take the example of the stomachs of the whales found in the Pacific Ocean versus the Mediterranean one can see that: whereas, in the Mediterranean the Whale was eating predominantly squid, it was eating squid from a deep ocean level but more at the 1,000 to 2,000 foot level. In the Pacific the Whales found in Monterey, California in 2015, and in Taiwan, in 1995, ( and other places such as Alaska, Baja California etc.) had access to much deeper water. in fact taking from regions as the bentopelagic (on the deep ocean sea bed of the edge of the continental shelf or slope, varying from 650 to 6,500 feet deep) fish such as the Macrouridae Bathygadus melanobranchus, Vaillant (Giant) Grenadier–– a fish related to cod,–– they added a rich mixture of crustaceans and cephalopods truly further down in the bathypelagic ( most extreme dim dark ocean depths of 3.300 to 9,800 feet deep) and amidst bathypelagic areas some obscure mollusks and a very deep sea octopus only found in these deep deep sea regions. In general the Cuvier Beaked Whale eats about 92% of its diet of various types of squid. But, as demonstrated by the analyses, depending on where the whales are diving for their nourishment they can get either mesopelagic ( a depth of 660 to 3300 deep) to bathypelagic squid of many different sizes and as mentioned before, around 37 varieties. This implies that in the Pacific Ocean due to the great depth of the Ocean the whales are diving very deep and scooping up many exotic or yet unseen varieties of squid. The whale retrieved in Monterey in 2015 ate 200 squid, 5 fish and one very deep sea shrimp, seemingly, the shrimp and most of the squid bathypelagic, and the fish were the Giant Grenadiers off the depths of the bentopelagic ocean bottoms. It appears that the Cuvier Beaked Whale actually prefers and prospers while diving deep and using its suction process to acquire fish. The so-called "melon" of the whale, in other words its bump on top of its head, modest in the case of the Cuvier Beaked Whale, contains an area in which is its organ for echolocation, the method to use sound waves to locate potential sources of food. This would be obviously terribly helpful in the nearly black dark depths of the deep sea. This diving deep with echolocation seems to be a strategy also of the whales to not have many other competitors besides the denizens of the deep to fight for the squid, and co. The fact that they hold the current world's record for underwater dives by a mammal is quite indicative and amazing. The nearly four hour record is far longer by hours than is usual with whales, dolphins, porpoises,––or even sea lions which were fairly recently,––within ten years or so–– thought to hold the record.

Threats to Existence, environmental issues

The Cuvier Beaked Whale seems to have a bad reaction to sonar. The occasions when it has been stranded or more than one whale has been beached, dies and is stranded, has often been near Naval bases where sonar could or would have been in use. Cuvier Beaked Whales have also been observed in Hawaii avoiding diving for food or avoiding an entire area after sonar is in use. It will be interesting to see the effects of ocean quiet from the Coronavirus–19 on the Cuvier Beaked Whale as they may be able to profit from much more range in the meanwhile. Cuvier Beaked Whales are also very canny about refraining from being in areas where big boats cruise through. One hopes the same thing may apply there. Cuvier Beaked Whales cleverly use diving to avoid Orcas and their attacks, and it is thought, or surmised they they might attempt to swim far and surface far elsewhere after a long interval to confuse attackers, Orcas or otherwise. Being able to rest under water easily for an hour, almost routinely, and at a record for almost four hours gives them much scope in this regard. There has not been any study that can be reported on the effects of Fukushima, its radiation and environmental threats, negative impacts and habitat degradations on the whales. There was an article on a reported small steady decrease in numbers of whales since 2008 which would certainly make sense. A study on this and a study before and after the Coronavirus-19 calming in ocean traffic would be desirable. It must also be noted that the Z. Cavirostris, Cuvier Beaked also suffers danger from Japanese whaling every year. The Japanese have withdrawn from earlier whaling agreements with the International Whaling Commission in 2019 and every year kill many Baird's Beaked Whales Berardius bairdii (called in Japan, "tsuchi-kujira" or hammer-headed) which resembles the Cuvier Beaked Whale a bit, but is bigger. The Japanese claim that it is not a significant environmental problem even though other countries are now refraining. In the process of killing the Baird's Beaked Whales which are larger and often found in the Sea of Japan they sometimes kill Cuvier Beaked Whales, by mistake as well. There is also always the danger of getting tangled in irresponsibly unsupervised long-line fishing nets in some areas as well.

Lifestyle and Life

The Cuvier Beaked Whale besides being off in the middle of the ocean seems to be intelligent to a high degree in assessing its environment. It will breach in a large jump or circuit fully out of the waves if it perceives the surroundings as peaceful–– and even breach in twos or more. But, not swimming in a large pack but only in small groups if at all, it has learned the defensive strategy of lying low as well. As mentioned, it can dive and disappear from predators, and it can dive and remain below till a predator has passed over. In general the reports on its lifespan are very limited. There does not seem to be material on whether the whales are pair bonds or more promiscuous, or diverse. Information is lacking. Some experts said it lives around fifty years, some sixty, some up to eighty. Surely there will need to be more comparative research, as people are able.