A Pygmy sperm whale calf washed ashore on a beach near Hendon Park in Gordon’s Bay beach, according to a recent Facebook post made by Lisa Starr, founder of the Helderberg Ocean Awareness Movement (Hoam), on Hoam’s page.
Coastal management later came and collected the carcass for a necropsy.
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In the same post, Starr states that another Pygmy sperm whale washed ashore, this time near Fleur Park. After inspecting the beached whale, it was speculated to be the mother of the previous beached whale, as it was larger in size, at about 2.5 metres.
According to Starr, the mother had been dead for three to five days, and that there weren’t any bad injuries that they could deduce from, but it had been ‘badly scratched’ by the rocks.
Starr added that Pygmy sperm whales are negatively affected by ‘fishing nets, man-made ambient sounds such as sonar and boat engines and occasional hunting’.
‘This is why [seismic blasting] is negative also,’ she added.
Pygmy Sperm whales are believed to mate from April to September in the Southern Hemisphere and once a female whale is impregnated, the average gestation period lasts nine to eleven months, Starr stated, citing Wikipedia as her source.
The female gives birth to a single calf head-first, which is unusual for cetaceans.
Newborn calves are about 1.2 metres in length, weighing 50kg, and are weaned when they are a year old. They are also believed to live up to the age of 23.
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