Red List of South African Species

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Data Deficient (DD)
Reviewers: Philip Hammond William Perrin

Rationale

There is no information on abundance and no information on trends in global abundance for this species. As a relatively uncommon species it is potentially vulnerable to low-level threats and a 30% global reduction over three generations cannot be ruled out (criterion A).

Distribution

Shepherd's beaked whales are primarily known from a few dozen strandings, all south of 30°S, around New Zealand, southern Australia, southern South America, the Juan Fernandez Islands, and Tristan de Cunha (Mead 1989). There have been only a few sightings reported in the literature and the validity of most of those is suspect (or clearly erroneous. The confirmed sightings have been from south of Tasmania and in oceanic waters of the South Atlantic (Pitman et al. 2006). The majority of strandings have occurred in New Zealand. It is presumed that they have a circumpolar distribution in cold temperate waters of the Southern Hemisphere (MacLeod et al. 2006). It is possible that the species may be somewhat more widespread than the records suggest, since it was not likely to be accurately identified at sea until its recent re-description (Pitman et al. 2006).

Population trend

Trend

Shepherd’s beaked whale appears to be relatively rare, but there are no estimates of abundance available. The external appearance of the species was not well-known until it was re-described from several fresh specimens and at-sea sightings; this could lead to further refinement about its distribution and abundance (Pitman et al. 2006). Nothing is known about subpopulation structure.

Threats

No major threats are known for this species. As is true for most of the beaked whales, this species has never been hunted and fisheries interactions are not known.

Evidence from stranded individuals of Tasmacetus shepherdi indicated that they had swallowed discarded plastic items (reference?), which may eventually lead to death (e.g. Scott et al. 2001).

This species, like other beaked whales, is likely to be vulnerable to loud anthropogenic sounds, such as those generated by navy sonar and seismic exploration (Cox et al. 2006).

Predicted impacts of global climate change on the marine environment may affect this species of whale, although the nature of impacts is unclear (Learmonth et al. 2006).

Conservation

The species is listed on Appendix II of CITES. Research is needed to assess the impacts of potential threats on this species.

References 

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 year = {2017}
}
,@inbook{2762,
 author = {},
 booktitle = {Baird's beaked whale <i>Berardius bairdii</i> Stejneger, 1883: Arnoux's beaked whale <i>Berardius arnuxii</i> Duvernoy, 1851},
 editor = {Balcomb, K. C.},
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 year = {1989}
}
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 year = {2002}
}
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 volume = {7},
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}
,@article{2762,
 author = {Fernández, A., Edwards, J. F., Rodriguez, F., Espinosa, A., De Los Monteros, Herraez, P., Castro, P., Jaber, J. R., Martin, V. and Arebelo, M.},
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 volume = {42},
 year = {2005}
}
,@article{2762,
 author = {Macleod, C. D., Perrin, W. F., Pitman, R. L., Barlow, J., Balance, L., D'amico, A., Gerrodette, T., Joyce, G., Mullin, K. D., Palka, D. L. and Waring, G. T.},
 journal = {Journal of Cetacean Research and Management},
 number = {3},
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 title = {Known and inferred distributions of beaked whale species (Ziphiidae: Cetacea)},
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}
,@article{2762,
 author = {Scott, M. D., Hohn, A. A., Westgate, A. J., Nicolas, J. R., Whitaker, B. R. and Campbell, W. B.},
 journal = {Journal of Cetacean Research and Management},
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}
,@article{11047,
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,@article{21500,
 author = {Gomercic, H., Gomercic, M. D., Gomericic, T., Lucic, H., Dalebout, M., Galov, A., Skrtic, D., Curkovic, S., Vukovic, S. and Huber, D.},
 journal = {European Journal of Wildlife Research},
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,@article{21500,
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}
,]
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