The rarest whale for the first time took video

For the first time biologists were able to see and capture Remezova True rare toothed whale, the existence of which some naturalists began to doubt, said in an article published in the journal PeerJ.

The so-called remasuri of True’s (Mesoplodon mirus) were opened in 1913, the American zoologist Frederick TRU during travel in tropical and subtropical waters of the North Atlantic. This is a rather large whales with a length of 3.5-5 meters, characterized by the presence of characteristic beak and only two teeth.

As told by Emma Carroll (Emma Carroll) from St. Andrews University in Scotland, all Renatovich gray whales whales — a very rare and secretive animals, whose lives we know almost nothing. Remasuri are True Champions in this field, even compared with neighbors over the past few years, scientists and sailors saw the whales only a few dozen times, and never been caught, never studied and never took them off for the photo or video.

In the 1980-ies some naturalists began to talk about the fact that remasuri Labor actually may not exist or may represent two different species of cetaceans, as their alleged habitat is split in two too far apart. One of them is in the waters of the North Atlantic and the second in southern Indian ocean.

Carroll and her colleagues were lucky – in November 2012 contacted the inhabitants of El Hierro one of the Canary Islands and reported a strange beached whale. When the scientists arrived at the scene and saw dead animals, I realized that they are incredibly lucky – they were the first oceanographers who managed to get a full body Mesoplodon mirus.

Studying the structure of the whale’s body and its DNA allowed the team to Carroll to begin a planned search of these rare animals off the coast of the Canary Islands. Scientists not only confirmed that remasuri GWS exist, but also shot several of these animals on video. In addition, they received detailed underwater photographs of live females and males, as well as the first pictures of their offspring.

A comparison of the DNA and photos of the whales showed that remasuri TRU genetically and anatomically different from other species of raimnazarov – Serve whales (Mesoplodon europaeus). In addition, the researchers found that the color of raimnazarov Labor can vary greatly from specimen to specimen, so it was probably difficult to monitor them in the past.

Another interesting fact about their lives – back of some of the males are covered with unusual dark stripes of different length, thickness and width. They, as scientists believe, are the scars that appeared during the fights for the attention of females.
Received information that Carroll and her colleagues, will help marine scientists to establish the exact habitat of these animals, understand if they are threatened with extinction and if they need protection from anglers and poachers.

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