New Zealand Whales and Dolphins
Classification
Classification
This classification, and the arrangement of species in the book, is based on the scheme published by Rice and Scheffer in “A List of the Marine Mammals of the World” (US Fish and Wildlife Service Special Scientific Report — Fisheries No. 579, 1968). The names used, and for that matter parts of the classification, are in a state of flux because of the incomplete information available on some of the species. Also, there are probably poorly-defined geographical races of some species in different parts of the Pacific Ocean, and those in New Zealand waters may still await detailed description. One species of dolphin, Steno bredanensis (the Rough-Toothed Dolphin) which has been included in the New Zealand cetacean fauna with reservations by early writers, is not listed here. A skeleton of this dolphin in the U.S. National Museum is said to have been purchased in New Zealand in the early 1900s, but as the species is not known with any certainty from the southwest Pacific the original location of the skeleton must remain suspect.
Classification Of New Zealand Cetaceans
Order Mysticeti — Baleen Whales
Family Balaenidae — Right Whales
Southern Right Whale — Balaena glacialis australis
Pygmy Right Whale — Caperea marginata
Family Balaenopteridae — Rorquals
Minke Whale — Balaenoptera acutorostrata
Sei Whale — Balaenoptera borealis schlegeli
Bryde's Whale — Balaenoptera edeni
Southern Finner — Balaenoptera physalus quoyi
Southern Blue Whale — Balaenoptera musculus intermedia
Humpback Whale — Megaptera novaeangliae
page 17Order Odontoceti — Toothed Whales
Family Dephinidae — Dolphins
Bottlenose Dolphin — Tursiops truncatus
Risso's Dolphin — Grampus griseus
Dusky Dolphin — Lagenorhynchus obscurus
Hourglass Dolphin — Lagenorhynchus cruciger
Spotted Dolphin — Stenella dubia
Striped Dolphin — Stenella caeruleoalba
Common or Saddleback Dolphin — Delphinus delphis
Right Whale Dolphin — Lissodelphis peroni
Hector's Dolphin — Cephalorhynchus hectori
False Killer Whale — Pseudorca crassidens
Pilot Whale — Globicephala melaena
Killer Whale — Orcinus orca
Black Finless Porpoise — Neophocaena phocaenoides
Family Physeteridae — Sperm Whales
Sperm Whale — Physeter catodon
Pygmy Sperm Whale — Kogia breviceps
Family Ziphiidae — Beaked Whales
Shepherd's Beaked Whale — Tasmacetus shepherdi
Scamperdown Whale — Mesoplodon grayi
Hector's Beaked Whale — Mesoplodon hectori
Andrew's Beaked Whale — Mesoplodon bowdoini
Strap-Toothed Whale — Mesoplodon layardi
Cuvier's or Goose-Beaked Whale — Ziphius cavirostris
Large Beaked Whale — Berardius arnouxi
Southern Bottlenose Whale — Hyperoodon planifrons
Note On The Illustrations
The colour patterns are as accurate as possible with the available information; the limitations of ink drawings mean that the actual colours cannot by portrayed as in life, and therefore the black should be interpreted as either that colour or shades of blue-black, and the stippling as shades of grey or grey-brown.