Cuvier’s beaked whale (Ziphius cavirostris) is the most abundant species of the Ziphiidae family of toothed whales (Heyning, 1989b), yet much about it remains unknown. Studies of live Z. cavirostris are rare, as they are visually inconspicuous at sea due to deep, long-duration dives and short surfac...

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Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
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Online Access:http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.610.6661
http://whalescience.com/SDSU/My Work/Soldevillaetal2005JEB.pdf
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Summary:Cuvier’s beaked whale (Ziphius cavirostris) is the most abundant species of the Ziphiidae family of toothed whales (Heyning, 1989b), yet much about it remains unknown. Studies of live Z. cavirostris are rare, as they are visually inconspicuous at sea due to deep, long-duration dives and short surface times (Heyning, 1989b; Barlow et al., 1997; Baird et al., 2004). Cuvier’s beaked whales typically inhabit deep, offshore waters exhibiting steep slope features such as submarine canyons, oceanic islands, the continental shelf edge, and enclosed seas (Boutiba, 1994; D’Amico et al., 2003; Forney et al., 1995; Heyning, 1989b; Houston, 1991; Marini et al., 1996; Waring et al., 2001). Similar to other toothed whales, echolocation is important for Cuvier’s beaked whales when navigating these features and when foraging for deep-sea and benthic squid, fish and crustaceans in the mesopelagic zone