Scientists dissect rare spade-tooth whale. Here's what they found

Scientists in New Zealand are carrying out a dissection of a spade-tooth whale, which is one of the rarest whale species in the world, as part of the first such examination of the entire specimen.  

Spade-toothed whales are a kind of beaked whale which have been given the name because of the resemblance of their teeth with spade-like “flensing” blades. This was used at one time for stripping whales of their blubber. 

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Since the 1800s, seven such whales have been documented and one of them has been found in New Zealand.

Where was the rare whale found?

The five-metre-long male whale had washed ashore in Otago, South Island, in July. The discovery of the whale had created excitement in cetacean specialists who had little knowledge of such rare creatures on the basis of the tissue and bones of earlier such specimens, which were found decades before. 

On Monday (December 2), international and local scientists gathered along with local Maori and started the examination of the whale at the Invermay Agresearch Centre in Mosgiel.

The atmosphere in the centre has been of “reverence” for the animal, explained Anton van Helden, who is a global expert on the spade-toothed whale and a science adviser at the Department of Conservation. 

“We’re working around a dead animal, but it’s telling us about how it [lived], and also that’s unpacking all of the life stories of the people involved around it,” Helden said.

The paper's lead author, Van Helden, said that the appearance of the species has given an opportunity to examine the whale, which is “an incredible moment”.

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“Beaked whales are the most enigmatic group of large mammals on the planet, they are deep divers that are rarely seen at sea. This one is the rarest of the rare, only the seventh specimen known from anywhere in the world, and the first opportunity we have had to undertake a dissection like this,” Helden said.

In 1874, scientists had found the first such spade-toothed whale when the species got its name on the basis of its description, which was two teeth and lower jaw bone in the Chatham Islands, which is off the east coast of New Zealand’s South Island.

Scientists have been working alongside the local Māori from Ōtākou. The local Māori possess the customary rights of the area where the whale appeared. 

The study's contributing writer, Tūmai Cassidy, said that Māori consider whales a taonga, which is a sacred treasure of cultural significance. 

“Whales are incredibly important animals in our culture … our arrival to Aotearoa [New Zealand] is deeply tied to whales and like other cultures around the world we utilise different parts of their bodies," he said. 

(With inputs from agencies)