- Home
- Blog Details
On 4th July, the local authorities at Talari Mouth reported that one of the world’s rarest creatures had washed up on shore. According to the New Zealand Department of Conservation, it is a 16- foot beaked whale, further stating that the body is of a male spade-toothed whale, which is extremely hard to come by thus regarding it as the “world’s rarest.”
Till now only six sightings of spade-toothed while have been reported. According to the DOC, the first sighting was in the year of 2010, when the first intact specimen of this species was reported as a mother and her calf was stranded along New Zealand’s Bay of Plenty. After the first discovery, a DNA analysis was conducted which differentiated these whales from Gray’s Beaked whales. The second specimen was contributed by the stranding of a second whale followed by the discovery of the skeletal remains and teeth of two spade - toothed whales in Chile.
The discovery of this specimen is a golden opportunity for the scientists as this is the first specimen that is going to be dissected. Though the DOC has assured the local tribal council that this treasured find will be treated with respect in accordance with the Māori culture and traditions. Davies has also further added, “It is important to ensure appropriate respect for this taoka (culture treasure) is shown through the shared journey of learning, applying mātauraka Māori as we discover more about this rare species.”
The rangers carefully handled the carcass of the whale and moved it to the University of Aukland’s New Zealand Cetacean Tissue Archive to confirm the treasured science discovery. Though the analysis is supposed to take quite a long time to confirm that the DNA is of a spade-toothed whale species. Thus, the whale currently awaits dissection in a cold storage.
The DOC Coastal Otago Operations Manager Gabe Davies has stated in a press release, “Spade-toothed whales are one of the most poorly known large mammalian species of northern times. Since the 1800s, only 6 samples have ever been documented world wide, and all but one of these was from New Zealand. From a scientific and conservation point of view, this is huge.”
This creature, a male, measures roughly 16ft. According to the DOC, not much is known yet about this species. No one has ever spotted this whale alive thus leading to the animal being classified as data deficient in the Country’s Threat Classification System.
This species was first described in 1874 after the findings of a lower jaw and two teeth in the Chatham Islands. Scientists were able to discover a new species after using the skeletal remains of two other specimens from Whakaari Island and Robinson Crusoe Island. Unfortunately these creatures have never been spotted in the wild according to the wildlife charity Whale and Dolphin Conservation and very little is known about its behavior and whereabouts.
