Cuvier’s beaked whale ©M.Dewynter/CARIMAM

Cuvier’s beaked whale (Ziphus cavirostris)©C.Pusineri

- TAXONOMY
Class: Mammalia
Order: Cetacea
Suborder: Odotoceti
Family: Ziphiidae
Common names:
English: Cuvier’s beaked whale, goose-beaked whale
Spanish: Ballena de Cuvier
French: Baleine à bec de Cuvier

- MORPHOLOGY AND BEHAVIOR
Morphology: fairly robust body. Small dorsal fin. Poorly defined beak with two small protruding teeth on the lower jaw in males.
Color and patterns: body mottled golden tan to reddish brown, dark eye patch; forehead, beak and chin are creamy white. Adult males often with white head and linear tooth scarring on body and round scars common.
Body length: 6-7 m
Group size: usually single individuals or groups of few individuals.
Specific behavior: Elusive species, difficult to approach. It usually dives to several hundred meters for 20-40 min, but it is capable of going to nearly 3000 m for more than 2 hours.
Feeding: almost exclusively cephalopods hunted day and night in the deep ocean.

- DISTRIBUTION
Global distribution: they occur in tropical, subtropical, and temperate waters around the world, from 60° south to 60° north.
Sightings in the Wider Caribbean region: It is the most frequently sighted species of Ziphiidae in the whole Caribbean. It is distributed mainly in the deep waters of the continental slopes and island slopes, between the 1 000- and 3 000-meters isobaths.

- CONSERVATION
Threats recorded in the Wider Caribbean region: underwater noise produced during geophysical seismic surveys, military (naval) training exercises.
IUCN status: LC (Least Concern)
SPAW status: Cuvier’s beaked whale is classified in Annex II of the SPAW Protocol since 1991.