Yesterday September 12, 2009 Mauritians have moved to an unexpected discovery on their coasts, first identified as a young sperm whale, it was found that the animal is indeed a pilot whale with a length of 4 20 meters. Team Boat House Hotel Residence located on the east coast of Mauritius has warned that the dive center Diving Blues at the Belle Mare Plage they brought to earth a "whale" which was drifting to death inside the lagoon near the inlet of Belle Mare. The coastguard and police were alerted and went immediately on the spot.
A serious identification made by Owen Griffith Cetacean Specialist Mauritius authenticates the animal as a pilot whale, a mammal rarely seen in Mauritian waters. Their last appearance was in 1942 when six of them were stranded in mysterious circumstances on the west coast of Mauritius.
The pilot whale (in "globular head") is often nicknamed "whale-pilot" or "dolphin-pilot" since it is usually seen around or in the boats bow bench for ten to several hundred individuals.
Apparent signs of pilot whales found on September 12
- two bites of small sharks fairly recent
- incised skin, probably due to its passage over the reef,
- small white bumps that appear on the skin,
- indeterminate sex (awaiting identification).
Measures of pilot whale
- Length: 4.20 meters
- diameter: 2.90 meters
- Ridge height: 28 cm
- teeth dark yellow / brown, between 2 cm and 2.5 cm apparent.
Photo of shark bite on a pilot whale stranded on Mauritius
Picture of the teeth of pilot whales stranded on Mauritius
If you have any other information about this discovery do not hesitate to express to you! I would like to know more about it ... And if you've ever seen pilot whales dive I would appreciate your opinion. In fact I do not know almost all of pilot whales, teach me!
Source and photos: Jean-Michel Langlois, Association for Forever Blue (seabed protection of Mauritius)
Here is a comment from Cedric who posted this on my Facebook page after the publication of this article:
"It is a odontocetes. A dolphin which the bowler out of proportion compared to other dolphins. They wash up often in groups, Australia is a known phenomenon. Cetaceans in the open ocean, coastal Their ignorance may be a factor in this type of grounding. Another hypothesis is magnetite, a mineral involved in geometric navigation in these animals, which was found in the brains of some cetaceans. In the case of this article there is a single globi implying that he died on the high sea that can be read several causes such as stroke, cardiac arrest, an ADD and so we assume that some cetaceans can see a of ADD.
Voila. some explanations
"
I knew for magnetite, but I knew nothing else!
Thank you Cedric
Hello
Videos on the Whale:
http://www.cetace.info/galerie-videos-de-baleines-et-dauphins/galeries-videos-odontocetes/videos-de-globicephale-tropical.html
Thank you!
About the diving pilot whales, it seems to me important to note that this is not really trying. Or keep your distance. Indeed pilot whales live in family groups and children maintain strong ties that last a long time with their mother. For this reason the divers who approached adult size of pilot whales to leave the young alone have been reprimanded by mothers: they catch you and you live down to 20m depth and then you relax and then you go back to the surface panicked. No sooner it is reached, they start. And farewell your eardrums. At best ...
Apart from this, Globis cetaceans are rather nice, you just leave them alone