Southern Bottlenose Whale

Fascinating facts about the Southern Bottlenose Whale

• In 1882, English zoologist William Henry Flower named the southern bottlenose whale after examining a water-worn skull from Lewis Island, marking the first scientific glimpse of a creature that still hides in the deep Antarctic ocean.
• When fully grown, this beaked whale reaches about 7.5 m (25 ft) long, roughly the length of a city bus, while its dorsal fin measures only 30–38 cm (12–15 in), a tiny sail tucked behind its mid-back.
• It can stay underwater for 15 to 40 minutes, far longer than most cetaceans, and usually surfaces in groups of just one to five individuals, hinting at a secretive, low-profile social life far beneath the waves.
• Stomach analyses have uncovered pieces of colossal squid with mantle lengths up to ~120 cm and weights around 13.8 kg, showing the whale can tackle prey as big as a small car, even though we still don’t know how it captures such massive cephalopods.
• Japanese whalers took 42 individuals, and Soviet whalers caught 42 southern bottlenose whales between 1970 and 1982; a whale sanctuary in the Southern Ocean was created in 1994, prohibiting whaling there.

At a glance

About the Southern Bottlenose Whale

In the abyssal depths of the Southern Ocean, the Southern bottlenose whale (Hyperoodon planifrons) glides with a sleek, light-to-mid grey back and a paler underside, its 7.5 m (25 ft) body built for the darkness beyond the continental shelf. Males sport a long, white beak while females display a muted grey, and a modest dorsal fin, only 30–38 cm (12–15 in) long, sits just behind the mid-back, falcate and pointed like a tiny sail. These whales linger in waters deeper than 1,000 m (3,300 ft), ranging circumpolarly from the Antarctic coast to the tip of South Africa, New Zealand’s North Island and southern Brazil, rarely surfacing beyond the remote, cold realm they call home. Their lives are a study in stealth and endurance: small groups of one to five individuals dive for 15 to 40 minutes, hunting a banquet of squid, Histioteuthis, Taonius, Gonatus, Moroteuthopsis and others, alongside krill, Patagonian tootfish and tunicates. Remarkably, stomachs have yielded remnants of colossal squid up to 120 cm in mantle length and 13.8 kg in weight, hinting at a predatory prowess few beaked whales possess. Suction-feeding, powered by a retractable tongue and expandable throat, creates a biological vacuum that draws prey into a seven-chambered stomach, while a spermaceti-filled melon likely amplifies echolocation clicks that pierce the inky depths. The whale’s body bears extensive white scarring, testimony to intraspecific aggression and perhaps the grip of giant squid suckers, adding a rugged, battle-worn texture to its otherwise elegant silhouette.

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