I was a bit surprised to find out that whales have hair!
Cath Kemper said:
‘Most whales and dolphins are born with a few hairs on their face. Most will lose these hairs within weeks of birth but some species, such as humpbacks and maybe pygmy right whales, retain them as adults.’
It was earlier blogged that the wounds on the whale were from cookie cutter sharks.
Te Papa’s Fish collection manager, Andrew Stewart, came to have a look and this is his expert opinion:
‘Based on where the whale came ashore, the scars are probably from the cookie cutter rather than the seal shark (a larger shark species found in colder waters).
Many marine mammals carry the scars from encounters with these sharks. They have been likened to a swarm of wasps as these sharks sometimes occur in schools.
Tuna fishermen hate them as the bites can significantly reduce the market value of their fish. Fortunately for whales, a thick layer of blubber affords some protection from these unique predators!’
The dissection of the pygmy right whale is a very detailed and time consuming process!
A quick update: the skin and blubber has been removed from half of the whale as you can see above. And our pygmy right whale is a young male, probably no older than 6 months old.
The scientists will be breaking for lunch shortly and then preparing for their talks tonight at the TelstraClear centre at Te Papa at 6.30pm.
From Bruce Reidenburg:
The scientists are now exploring the layers of muscle on the sides of the whale. There is an interesting highly developed muscle that is special to the youngest baby whales. Since fetal whales are curled sideways in utero, this special adapted muscle unfolds the tail after the whale is born.
In people these muscles pull the back straight when standing. In the baby whale, this muscle is very powerful and becomes less developed as the animal ages. In humans, this is only one of a series of muscles that straighten the backwhen standing, so it is weak in baby humans and gets stronger as we learn to walk and run.
There is another interesting adaptation that is becoming visible during today’s dissection. The muscles of the abdominal wall involved in flexing ventrally are attaching to the broad non-respiratory ribs. In humans these muscles attach to the anterior part of the pelvis. In whales, these muscles are positioned to help propel the body wave during swimming. As we go deeper, we will find out what structures are tied to the whale’s small residual pelvis.
If you’ve managed to go to the Whales|Tohorā exhibition here at Te Papa then you’ll have come across the pieces of baleen.
Some whales have teeth – others have baleen. Baleen sort of looks like bristley paintbrushes hanging down either side in a whale’s mouth. It acts like a big sieve or tea strainer. Baleen whales scoop tiny organisms like krill and copepods in mouthfuls along with sea water. They force the sea water out of their mouths through the baleen leaving the prey behind.
The whales then use a combination of their tongues, sucking action and possibly some rinsing with sea water to dislodge the prey from the baleen (its hairy on the inside and the prey gets caught) before swallowing.
The colouration of the baleen depends on the type of whale it is – the blue whale’s is almost black.
Our pygmy right whale’s baleen is creamy white on the inside, dark grey on the outside with a stripe of creamy white along the top. Its beautiful.
Well mostly because of how it’s mouth is shaped like a right whale’s but… a lot smaller. The people who named it were using a little piece of baleen and a glimpse of a live animal to give it it’s name.
Notice the curve of the upper jaw and how the lower jaw lips come up to meet the upper jaw – much like a right whale’s.
Scientists are slowly learning more about the pygmy right whale through post mortems (like this) but as they don’t wash up on beaches very often, not many have been done.
This is why this dissection over the next couple of days is so important to the scientific community. There is so much we simply do not know about this animal.
That got your attention! I’ve been learning some dissection terms. Autopsy is generally used in relation to humans and looks at cause of death.
A necropsy usually refers to animals. It looks at how the animal’s body
works as well as the possible cause of death.
Here’s a picture of the pygmy right whale fresh out of the freezer on Saturday, ready for the necropsy. The white stuff you can see is ice!
The scientific team are all here and have spent today planning how it’s all going to go. External measurements first – guess how much it weighs!
We’ll be blogging from about 9am tomorrow. See you then.
We’ve had time to catch up on a few things today . . . the lab is almost cleared of our equipment and Anton has begun moving things in for tomorrow’s dissection of a juvenile pygmy right whale.
A team of whale scientists are going to be dissecting a stranded pygmy right whale at Te Papa next week.
But what does a pygmy right whale look like? how big is it?
Here’s a picture of a pygmy right whale (Caperea marginata) that stranded in Golden Bay, Nelson and was later refloated. It’s about 3 metres long.
Photo courtesy of the Department of Conservation
In Whales|Tohorā you can see a skeleton of a pygmy right whale hanging in the exhibition.
Come and visit and see if you can find it – the exhibition closes Sunday 11 May.
Dolphin Detectives at Te Papa
On Monday evening 40 or so children had a blast in the Whales|Tohorā exhibition being “Dolphin Detectives”, all thanks to the Friends of Te Papa.
Anton van Helden, Te Papa’s marine mammal scientist, was assisted by the kids and his four specially equipped assistants (complete with dolphin dorsal fins). We divided everyone up into four teams – the sperm whales, humpback whales, killer whales, and the blue whales.
The kids found out what to do if they ever come across a whale stranded on a beach. We used “Philippa”- Anton’s special dolphin model -to practise on.
Each whale team also had to discover what their whale sounds like and then sing their whale song. The blue whales made low, rumbly noises and the sperm whales made heaps of clicks. The killer whales gave a lot of high pitched squeaks, and the humpbacks sounded just like Dory, when she sings “whale” in the movie Finding Nemo….
At the end of the evening we all got together to give a whale concert, conducted by Anton.
We’re thinking of posting the video of our whale song on YouTube! Well, thinking about it …
If you’d like to be part of special events like this at Te Papa, then join Friends of Te Papa.
