Baird’s Beaked Whale Profile
The lack of research coming out of the deep ocean is so scarce that it’s borderline embarrassing. There are animals down there the size of commercial airliners that can talk, and we’re up here arguing over whose imaginary friend is the most important.
The deepest diving mammals we know of are members of the Ziphiidae family, which sounds like a character from The Hitchhiker’s Guide, but is, in fact, a large group of medium-sized whales with bizarre features. But because they’re so well adapted to the deep ocean, we know less about them than any other mammal. We can barely even tell them apart.
One such animal is the Baird’s beaked whale, an enigmatic marine mammal rarely spotted, let alone studied.
Baird’s Beaked Whale Facts Overview
| Habitat: | Deep waters, marine |
| Location: | North Pacific Ocean and the Japan, Okhotsk, and Bering Seas |
| Lifespan: | Up to 84 years |
| Size: | Up to 12.8 metres (42 ft) |
| Weight: | Up to 15 tons (33,000lb) |
| Colour: | Grey |
| Diet: | Deep sea fish, crustaceans |
| Predators: | Killer whales |
| Top Speed: | Unknown |
| No. of Species: | 1 |
| Conservation Status: | Least Concern (IUCN) |
Baird’s beaked whales are some of the deepest diving mammals, and we can barely identify them, let alone study them.
These large carnivores forage at depths that most mammals couldn’t reach, and their other habits remain a bit of a mystery.
What little we know of them suggests they’re slow breeders, with a lot of human-caused problems, but so far they appear to be surviving.
Interesting Baird’s Beaked Whale Facts
1. They’re hard to tell apart
There are at least 22 species of beaked whale, and many are so similar in appearance, that we don’t know which is which. Add to this their elusive and remote existence, and observations in the wild become extremely tricky.
They even hide their breath well, removing the common way of spotting whales from the spray of their blow. Because of all of this, most of the information available is only accurate down to a genus level, which is something very commonly associated with animals like bees (of which there are gazillions, impossible to tell apart), and rather astounding for a large mammal.
2. They’re social
We know this because we see them in huge groups. Of all the species, Baird’s beaked whales are one of the three most studied, and research shows that both male and mixed groups are common in this one.
Groups are usually somewhere between five and twenty in number but can include up to fifty individuals.
Other than that, we’re not sure how they interact, or what their breeding is like. Baird’s beaked whales live in waters that are up to 3km deep, which tends to keep them away from researchers. But tracked individuals have given us an insight into what they get up to out there. 1
3. They’re deep-sea hunters
Tight social groups of these whales generally keep to themselves, and make long, deep dives together. These dives normally last between 11 and 30 minutes, but the longest recorded dive lasted more than 80 minutes.
They can sink down to a depth of over a kilometre down, though it’s not known what their limit is. The deepest dive of any species was almost 3 kilometres, and went on for 138 minutes; a record held by the Cuvier’s beaked whale.
It seems that Baird’s whales sink this low to find their favourite species of fish: mackerel, sardines, and saury. They’ll also take crustaceans, squid, and sea cucumbers, and will spend a substantial amount of time foraging for these treasures at depths of 700 and 1200 meters.
Their diet varies widely, with the Japanese population feeding primarily on fish (82%) and cephalopods (18%), while the population in the Sea of Okhotsk is almost the complete opposite at 13% and 87%, respectively. 2
4. They have tusks
Like most species in this family, Baird’s beaked whales have only one set of teeth. These protrude from the mouth in both males and females, giving them tusks and a very strange appearance.
These are present at sexual maturity, and in some species, only in males. It’s thought that they provide some form of sexual competition.
It’s also thought that they are unique identifiers, allowing individuals within the species to recognise one another, and suggesting that they might look just as similar to one another as they do to us.
Bizarrely, this has led to a form of speciation, as groups with similar tusks isolated themselves from those with different ones. 3
5. Males appear to live longer
A curious difference in longevity is spotted in this species, with a 30-year gap between the life expectancy of the female, at 54 years, and that of the male, at 84.
Males also mature faster, but nobody is sure why. It appears that a single calf is born to a female at a time, and pregnancy lasts around 17 months, which makes this a very slow-breeding animal.
6. Threats
As we know, slow breeders can be particularly vulnerable to population declines, especially in the oceans.
While killer whales will predate upon beaked whales, common unsustainable threats to this species include entanglement in fishing gear, which kills over 300,000 cetaceans each year, and commercial whaling, which hunts them at a rate of thousands per year.
Sadly, they also ingest a lot of plastic, sometimes resulting in blocked digestive tracts and intoxication or starvation.
7. Sonar is a problem
Sonar and seismic operations have been shown to be harmful to beaked whales. Mass strandings occur in conjunction with naval sonar use, and stranded whales exhibit tissue damage from the power of the sound waves used.
They also appear to get the bends, likely as a result of rushing to the surface to avoid the excruciating noise caused by such events.
Despite these threats, the species is still considered as of least concern by the IUCN. 4
Baird’s Beaked Whale Fact-File Summary
Scientific Classification
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Cetacea |
| Family: | Ziphiidae |
| Genus: | Berardius |
| Species: | Bairdii |
Fact Sources & References
- Mercury News (2019), “Rare drone footage of Baird’s Beaked Whales”, Youtube.
- “Baird’s Beaked Whale”, NOAA Fisheries.
- “Study Finds Beaked Whales’ Tusks Evolved Through Sexual Selection Process”, Physorg.
- “Baird’s Beaked Whale”, IUCN Red List.