This whale occurs widely in deep, cold temperate waters of the Southern Hemisphere. It has a prominent beak and small flippers.
It has a torpedo-shaped body and a prominent beak. Adult males have a pair of tusk-like teeth in the lower jaw, and the small flippers tuck into dents along the body.
Gray’s beaked whales live in deep Southern Hemisphere waters and are rarely seen at sea. Researchers analyzed samples from 22 whales: two from South Africa, five from Western Australia, four from South Australia, and eleven from New Zealand. The sampling locations spanned about 13,000 kilometres.
The genetic data showed no clear geographic grouping among the sampled regions. The same pattern appeared in mitochondrial DNA and nuclear genome data. Mitochondrial genetic diversity was relatively high compared with that of other toothed whales.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.
Across 22 samples from four Southern Hemisphere regions, researchers found no clear geographic grouping in mitochondrial or nuclear genome data.