Rare Whale Caught on Camera for the First Time

Rare Whale Caught on Camera for the First Time

The Australian Antarctic Division team of researchers revealed on Thursday that they had filmed an extremely rare Shepherd's beaked whales for the first time ever while tracking blue whales off the coast of Victoria state last month.

Voyage leader Michael Double said the black and cream-coloured mammals with prominent dolphin-like beaks had been rarely spotted in the wild throughout history.

There have only been two previous confirmed sightings -- a lone individual in New Zealand and a group of three in Western Australia, according to the Australian environment department. Furthermore, they have never been filmed live before.

"These animals are practically entirely known from stranded dead whales, and there haven't been many of them," Double told AFP, dubbing the footage as "unique."

"They are an offshore animal, occupying deep water, and when they surface it is only for a very short period of time."

Double revealed what was more amazing about the sighting was that the whale was previously thought to be a solitary creature, yet they were in a pod of 10 to 12.

"To find them in a pod is very exciting and will change the guide books. Our two whale experts will now carefully study the footage to work out the whale sizes and so on and prepare a scientific paper."

The extremely rare Shepherd's beaked whale, also known as the Tasman beaked whale, was discovered in 1937 and people have little knowledge about them.

Posted by James Fried on Saturday February 25 2012, 4:32 AM EST. Ref: Google. All trademarks acknowledged. Filed under Featured News, World. Comments and Trackbacks closed. Follow responses: RSS 2.0