True's Beaked Whale is one of the most rarely recorded cetaceans on the planet. Confirmed sightings are so scarce that its common name, which includes 'true' or 'authentic' in some languages, reflects the surprise of its discoverers when they finally confirmed it was a distinct species and not just a variation of another known beaked whale. There are indications that North Atlantic and Southern Hemisphere populations might
A medium-sized cetacean, True's Beaked Whale has an elongated, fusiform body, grey-blue to brown in colouring, often with a lighter belly. It has a small head with a short, indistinct beak, and adult males possess a single pair of teeth located at the tip of the lower jaw. It is confused with other beaked whale species of similar size and shape, particularly with Gervais' Beaked Whale in the Atlantic. Reliable species-level identification at sea is extremely difficult and almost always requires examination of a stranded specimen.
True's Beaked Whale leaves no tracks on land. Its behaviour at sea is extremely discreet, with very deep and prolonged dives and very brief periods at the surface with a barely visible blow. This means that virtually all existing records of the species come from strandings on beaches rather than live sightings. The position of the teeth at the tip of the male's jaw is the most reliable feature for confirming the species against other very similar-looking beaked whales in a stranded specimen.
Very deep, temperate and tropical oceanic waters, in both the North Atlantic and parts of the Southern Hemisphere, generally far from the coast. Discontinuously distributed across the North Atlantic and temperate waters of the Southern Hemisphere, with populations that may represent genetically distinct lineages still under study.
It feeds mainly on deep-water squid, caught by suction during very deep and prolonged dives.
True's Beaked Whale is solitary or found in small, loosely cohesive groups. Its extremely deep diving behaviour keeps it practically invisible to humans throughout its life. It is one of the marine mammal species with the least direct information available on its reproductive and social biology.
The almost complete lack of direct population data, stemming from the extreme scarcity of True's Beaked Whale records (both live and stranded), currently prevents a reliable assessment of the global population trend.
Underwater acoustic pollution from naval sonar, associated with anomalous strandings documented in True's Beaked Whale and other Beaked Whale species, occasional bycatch in deep-sea fishing gear, and plastic ingestion documented in necropsies of stranded animals.
See all species accounts for even-toed ungulates · Full species index
Mammaling is a free app for logging the mammals you find. You record a sighting in a moment — even if it's just a track — your life list grows, and the record becomes available to scientific and conservation projects.
It runs on your phone with nothing to install. If you like, it adds to your home screen like any other app.
Open Mammaling