A whale believed to be the rarest in the world has been discovered on a New Zealand beach.
The Department of Conservation (DOC) received a report of a five-meter-long beaked whale that had washed ashore near Taiari Mouth earlier this month.
After consulting with experts, they concluded that the mammal was likely a male spade-toothed whale – a species so elusive that no live specimens have ever been observed.
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Gabe Davies, DOC Coastal Otago Operations Manager, stated, “Spade-toothed whales are one of the least known large mammalian species of our time.
Since the 1800s, only six specimens have been recorded globally, with all but one found in New Zealand. From a scientific and conservation perspective, this discovery is monumental.”
The DOC is collaborating with Te Rūnanga ō Ōtākou to determine the next steps for the whale’s remains. The freshness of this specimen presents the first-ever opportunity for a spade-toothed whale to be dissected, highlighting the international significance of this conversation.
Genetic samples have been sent to the University of Auckland, which curates the New Zealand Cetacean Tissue Archive.
Processing and confirming the DNA to finalize the species identification may take several weeks or months, according to reports from NeedToKnow.
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The spade-toothed whale species was initially described in 1874, based on a lower jaw and two teeth collected from Pitt Island, Rēkohu (Chatham Islands). Subsequent skeletal remains from Whakāri/White Island and Robinson Crusoe Island (Chile) further confirmed the species.
Two more recent discoveries, in the Bay of Plenty and north of Gisborne, provided the first descriptions of the species’ color patterns.
The whale has been carefully transported from the beach and is now in cold storage to preserve its remains until further decisions are made.
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Classified as ‘data deficient’ in the New Zealand Threat Classification System, very little is known about the spade-toothed whale. The first intact specimen was discovered following a mother and calf stranding in the Bay of Plenty in 2010. Another stranding in Gisborne in 2017 added one more specimen to the limited collection.
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