Sea Mammals - Blog Posts

Fraser's Dolphin Lagenodelphis hosei Family: Delphinidae Genus: Lagenodelphis Status and Conservation: Least Concern This dolphin species was first identified in 1895 when a skull was discovered on a Borneo beach. The skull was later donated to the British Museum, where Scottish zoologist Francis Fraser determined that...

Join the club here. ____________________________________ Very nice dolphin to draw as all dolphins. I am enjoying working on the cetacea order. There are many animals here that are new to me. How about you? See you next week with more animals!

Risso's Dolphin Grampu griseus Family: Delphinidae Genus: Grampus Status and Conservation: Least Concern Working on this one was very relaxing. Dolphins take me not so much time and still, the result is nice, So I usually work two every week I'm working on this family. Still amazed at how little I know about this bug family and how interesting its members are. If you want to know more about them, you can join my club here ____________________________ That will be it for this week. If you like the content, leave me some love. Reblogs are also loved. This blog is becoming the most complete source of mammals. Adios!

Long-Finned Pilot Whale (South Emisphere Form) Globicephala melas edwardii) Family: Delphinidae Genus: Globicephala Status and Conservation: Least Concern This is the final subspecies in this small family, and they closely resemble each other. Distinguishing them requires expertise. This form, for instance, exhibits more prominent white stripes on its sides and top compared to the other subspecies, though the presence of this pattern is not exclusive to it. This form resides in the Southern Ocean near the Antarctic Pole, as its name suggests. __________________________ Please consider joining the club where you can find more detailed information about every post here, spreads of the book that is in the making, and have access to the collectible E-Stickers. Just click here

The digital sticker album is almost done. I will begin with Perissodactyla order which contains the rhinos, horses, and tapirs families. Is looking good and the mechanics are working. More of it soon. Let's see the animal of this week. Māui Dolphin This is a subspecies of Hector's Dolphin (The one I showed you the last time). Also, live uniquely on New Zealand coasts, but more specifically in a very small range of the West of the North Island of the country. Sadly, less than 60 animals exist in the wild, making it the most endangered dolphin in the world. There are several programs that are in action in order to protect it from extinction and the results have been somehow optimistic. Fishing, Toxoplasmosis (an infection caused by a parasite called Toxoplasma), Brucellosis (a Bacteria), Oil and gas operations, and Climate change are the reasons why this dolphin is on the brink of extinction. It's always sad to see an animal fading away. I hope the programs that are working to recover their numbers work. Here is a link to one of them in case you want to know more. Maui63 ______________________________________________ Credits: Māui Dolphin _____________________________________________ Thank you guys for your love and support. Don't forget to give it a Like or reblogs if you like the content. You also can follow the page or check out my store if you want to give some support. See you next week.

I loved drawing this one. As someone commented on a dolphin I posted from the same family: Is like the pandas of the water. Again, what fascinates me the most about doing this animal encyclopedia is that I get to know mammals I didn't know existed and I can share that information with you all. Thank you for following and being interested. Let's see what can we learn from this wonderful dolphin.

Hector's Dolphin Hector's Dolphin lives exclusively on the coasts of New Zealand. They can live up to 22 years and are some of the smallest dolphins in the world. (If I'm not wrong the Vaquita is the smallest). Because of its size, predators can be numerous. Blue sharks, White sharks, Broadnose sevengill sharks, and probably Killer whales and Mako sharks. They hunt using echolocation which is basically finding prey using sound (Just as bats do). Their clicks (the sound they make) isn't as complex as other animals and travel short distances. Nonetheless is enough for them, since their environment is crowded and sound wouldn't be able to go long distances anyways. This animal is not in danger but its subspecies, the Māui Dolphin is probably one of the most endangered dolphins in the world, if not the most. We will talk about him in our next post. _____________________________________________ Credits: Hector's Dolphin Hector's Dolphin Ballenas, Delfines y Marsopas, Manuales de Identificación / Mark Carwardine, Martin Camm _____________________________________________ Thank you guys for your support! If you like the content, a follow, a like, and/or a reblogged will be very much appreciated. Just wish your dreams come true. Please wish me the same. Thank you!! Don't forget to check out my Store and follow me on Instagram

I usually don't post on Sundays but this week was crazy. I moved from my home country, Colombia to live in Canada for good last Thursday. I'm a little tired because of the move and I didn't have much time to think of anything else but packing. But here we are trying to post one animal every week. Today, one that was completely unknown to me and apparently to science too because not much is known about it. The Chilean Dolphin.

Chilean Dolphin This dolphin was previously named the black dolphin. It was named this way because of some dead specimens and some saw at the distance. When they studied live animals and got closer to them, they realized the color wasn't that dark so they changed the name to Chilean dolphin. This dolphin doesn't swim close to the boats. This is because they were hunted with harpoons up to the 80s. It is believed that the animal developed a fear of boats. (We can see why. What is strange is why the other species of dolphins haven't). By those times, hunts of this animal rise to 1500 per year. Today its status is Nearly Threatened. Store Instagram _________________________________________________

Credits: Chilean Dolphin Chilean Dolphin _________________________________________________ Thank you to all of you who liked and promoted my last post. It really helped me a lot. Again, if you like the content please like and subscribe. Reblog are also like gold for me. Hopefully, I will be able to post next week. Cheers!

Kerguelen Islands Commerson’s Dolphin

This subspecies was discovered in the 1950s. They own its name because they live close to the Kerguelen Islands south of the Indian Ocean. Actually, I just found the scientific name so I am not sure if that is the name of the animal. From what I read, they live close to the coast and prefer shallow waters. There are substantial physical differences between the two. This subspecies is larger but also its color patterns are different. The dark areas aren’t black but gray and the white area is more like light gray. Also, the demarcation between areas is more diffuse. In 2004 a vagrant individual (which is the name for an animal that is found out of its normal range) was found on the coasts of South Africa but no other sight has been notified.

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All the whales including the subspecies The poster includes the size and weight of each whale. You can purchase this poster on my store, just follow the link below and acquire this amazing piece of science. Perfect for animals lovers of any age. It comes in different sizes so anyone can afford it. If you get one, please let me know in the comments how you like it. I will take some time off but I will be back soon with more amazing illustrations and curiosities of the wonderful world of mammals. Thank you for your love and support.

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Gray Whale

The last member of the balaenopteridae family: The Gray Whale. (you might wonder why the sperm whale is not included but that one belongs to another family closer to dolphins as orcas do. I didn't know that)

This one habitat is way more reduced but its number is fine. Also called the Evil whale because it was a fierce fighter when hunted. (I wonder if there would be any animal who wouldn't fight for its life)

It is a very distinctive whale and the only extant of its family with its last relatives seen in the Neogene era.

Maybe the most notable marks are the withe spots all around its body product of scars left by parasites that fall off when is on cold grounds.

Three specimens were kept captive through history. The first one called Gigi in 1965 died two months after. However, in 1972 another catch called Gigi II, was held for a year after grew too much and had to be released. A third one was kept captive in SeaWorld San Diego for 14 months and also was released because of its size.

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Whales are ugly, or not. Probably both. On one side they look like a deformed giant body with a massive mouth that when opens make the animal looks even weirder. But then a beautiful tale swipes with force and breaks the ocean's surface and is accompanied by a pair of powerful fins that make that weird body moves gracefully as if it's dancing. It's a perfect combination of grotesque and beauty that combined with its size made us fall in love with it. ______

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Fin Whale

Formerly known Know as the Finback whale, Common rorqual, Herring whale, or Razorback whale, the Fin whale is the second largest whale on the planet. Its glamorous and slender shape make it one of the fastest rorquals despite its size. It was heavily hunting during the whaling times in the XX century but was able to recover and their numbers are somehow stable. Over 725,000 fin whales were reportedly taken from the Southern Hemisphere between 1905 and 1976. For this reason, the Southern Fin Whale is closer to extinction than the Northern Fin Whale. The North Pacific population is believed to be a third subspecies according to experts, however, more studies need to be done to validate this information. The Fin Whale is more related to the Humpback Whale and the Grey Whale. It is strange because these two rorquals belong to a different genus each.

Omura's Whale Little is known about this whale because was until 2003 that it was thought to be a smaller form of the Bryde's Whale. The description was made public in Nature, a British scientific weekly journal by three Japanese scientist. They determine the existence of the new specimen by DNA analysis. It was later discovered that its closest relative might be the Blue Whale. It is one of the smallest species of rorqual.

Searching for images of this whale I saw a few videos of the whale eating and it was amazing. I never thought this size o f animal could be so fast.

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Sei Whale

Is the third-largest rorqual before the Fin whale and the Blue whale. Heavily hunted in the XIX and XX century its numbers dropped from 250.000 to 80.000 which in other words mean less than a third of the pre whaling population. Today luckily is protected.

Mass deaths events have been recorded numerous times and the reason why isn't clear but it appears to be endemic poisoning called red tide. It is a phenomenon of decoloration of the sea surface that occurs by an overpopulation of certain microorganisms, apparently caused by the unprecedented warming of the Pacific Ocean. The biggest mass death event documented happened in Chile in June 2015 where 337 death Sei Whales were counted.

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Rice's Whale I can proudly say this is one of the few illustrations done of this new species, the Rice's Whale. Named in 2021, It was previously thought to be a subpopulation of the Bryde's Whale until further studies proved the opposite.

The sad news is that is critically endangered and along with the vaquita, those are two of the most scarce cetaceans in the world which happened to inhabit the same environment. The causes of its decline are still unclear but are believed to be because of the industrialization of the Gulf of Mexico.

The oil spill disaster in 2010 killed nearly 20% of its population.

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Antarctic Mink Whale.

First, it was believed to be a subspecies of the Mink Whale but in the 90's it was discovered to be a different species. Like the Mink Whale, it was ignored by whalers because its size made it one of the most abundant whales in the world. However, the decline of other whales, made the Mink Whale today one of the mainstays of the industry, therefore its numbers have started to decline too.

I don't believe whaling should be banned but I do believe it should have stronger control. I think cultures that do whaling shouldn't be deprived of something they have been doing for generations and also helped them to develop into the cultures and countries they are today. But it has to be responsible, as anything else.

These days we have been witnessed violent climate issues in different areas around the world that are just telling us what is coming in the near future if we don't change the way we treat the planet. Just take what you need so others also can have some.

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Whales are divided into three families. This is the second and biggest: the Balaenopteridae, which contains the biggest animal that ever inhabits the earth. However, we will start with its smallest member but also the fastest: the Mink Whale. This is the most common whale and is probably due to its not being commonly hunted by humans. Its size is too small (about 10m) and does not have enough oil yield, so hunting it is not worth it. Nonetheless, the hunting of this whale has increased.

Its name is confusing because it was first confused and classified wrongly. Its name is derived from the Norwegians who usually refer to any type of small whale as Minkie or Minkies' hval.

The Dwarf Mink Whale was described as a new subspecies not long ago and it is not sure yet if is one. Still has not scientific name. Mink Whale in captivity.

Mink whale has been tried to keep in captivity in Mito Aquarium, in Japan a few times. Most of the specimens died in few weeks while in 1956, the last one was able to scape a net aquarium after 37 days spinning the pool in the same direction.

____ I'm really ignorant of whales and most of this information is new to me. It is very hard to understand the information and translated it into something that I am able to explain. I hope is understood. ____ Thanks for your support. Likes, reblogging, or follows are very much appreciated.

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Poster Balaenidae and Cetotheriidae Family. Although not related, however similar and for many years thought to belong to the same family, The Pygmy Right Whale is the only extant member of the Cetotheriidae family. Despite its size, The biggest difference from the Balaenidae family is that the Pygmy whale has a dorsal fin and its mouth is not as big in proportion to its body as the other Right Whales. You can purchase this poster here

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