'Extinct' Omura's whales spotted: How rare are they?
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A whale species that marine conservationists feared was extinct is living off the coast of Madagascar, say scientists.
For many years, Omura's whales, named for Japanese whale expert聽, were misidentified as Bryde鈥檚 whales, another small baleen whale, until genetic testing in 2003 revealed聽that .听
For two years, Dr. Salvatore Cerchio 鈥� a guest investigator with the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, and a staff member at the New England Aquarium 鈥� and his team have investigated these little-known whales.
"Over the years, there have been a small handful of possible sightings of Omura's whales, but nothing that was confirmed,"聽Dr. Cerchio said . "This is the first definitive evidence and detailed [description] of Omura's whales in the wild and part of what makes this work particularly exciting."
Because their numbers are low and their habitat overlaps with Bryde鈥檚 whales, scientists have struggled to identify and investigate them, say the researchers in a recent聽. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has no classification for the species because there is not enough data.
In fact, during the initial stages of the study, the researchers themselves mistook the Omura鈥檚 whale for Bryde鈥檚 whales, due to the similarity in their shape and size: both species have elongated heads, although Omura鈥檚 whales have asymmetrical coloration and a distinctive ridge on the top of their heads. 聽聽
"The species is a tropical whale without segregation of feeding and breeding habitat, and is probably non-migratory," wrote the scientists. "Our data extend the range of this poorly studied whale into the western Indian Ocean."
Because Omura鈥檚 whales don't migrate,聽commercial whaling operations and by-catch聽threaten their survival. , Omura鈥檚 whales "might have been harvested commercially in the past (probably identified as Bryde's Whale), and [are] still subject to some local level harvesting."
The research team also observed four mothers with young calves and frequent lunge-feeding, and they recorded song-like vocalizations that may play a role in mating.
Cerchio plans to return in November to continue studying the whales' songs, behavior, and population characteristics, and to look for them them in other parts of their range.
Omura's whales "are difficult to find at sea because they are small 鈥撀爐hey range in length from approximately 33 to 38 feet 鈥撀燼nd do not put up a prominent blow," he said.
