habitat_narrative
Marine
Although very little is known about the habitat use of the Pygmy Right Whale, they have been documented utilising both oceanic and neritic habitats (Kemper 2002, 2009). When sighted along coastal regions, this species is commonly located within shallow, sheltered bays, in fact, all nine records from the assessment region are from large bays along South Africaâs south and south-east coast (Ross et al. 1975). The availability of food during spring and summer may be a driver for seasonal movements inshore (Ross et al. 1975, Sekiguchi et al. 1992b). In Namibia several individuals have been observed in the coastal waters of Walvis Bay by dolphin-watching tour operators (RH Leeney pers. obs.) and the regular occurrence of live strandings, particularly of juveniles, in Walvis Bay suggests that this region may be an important habitat for young Pygmy Right Whales, and may possibly extend into the offshore environment towards the Walvis Ridge (Leeney et al. 2013).The stomach contents of a juvenile female discovered in False Bay, South Africa comprised of a range of copepods (such as Calanoides carinatus, Centropages brachiatus, Paracartia africana, Oithonia spp. and Oncaea spp.) and the ampipod Themisto gaudichaudi (Sekiguchi et al. 1992a). Similarly, the stomachs of two individuals caught by Soviet whalers contained mostly calnoid copepods (Ivashin et al. 1972). Best (2007) documents that Pygmy Whales also feed on euphausiids. As the smallest of all baleen whales, reaching a total length of just over 6 m, the term âPygmyâ was aptly attached to this species. Although very little information is available for the reproductive biology of this species, Ross et al. (1975) used information from other baleen whales to approximate the calf length at birth as 1.6â2.2 m, and at weaning as 3.2â3.8 m. Additionally, their gestation and lactation periods are estimated to last 10 and 5 months, respectively (Pavey 1992).
Ecosystem and cultural services: Marine mammals integrate and reflect ecological variation across large spatial and long temporal scales, and therefore they are prime sentinels of marine ecosystem change (Moore 2008).
