Australian Biological Resources Study

Australian Faunal Directory

Museums

Regional Maps

CAVS: 1578

Species Physeter macrocephalus Linnaeus, 1758

Sperm Whale

 

Distribution

States

New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Western Australia


Extra Distribution Information

Circumglobal but generally outside continental shelves.


IBRA and IMCRA regions (map not available)

IMCRA

Tasmania Province (10), Southeast Transition (11), Central Eastern Province (12), Central Eastern Transition (15), Kenn Transition (16), Kenn Province (17), Northeast Province (18), Northeast Transition (19), Timor Province (2), Cape Province (20), Northwest Transition (3), Northwest Province (4), Central Western Transition (5), Central Western Province (6), Southwest Transition (7), Southern Province (8), West Tasmania Transition (9)

Ecological Descriptors

Gregarious, migratory, oceanic, pelagic.

Extra Ecological Information

Diet mainly cephalopods but also includes fish.

 

General References

Aitken, P.F. 1971. Whales from the coast of South Australia. Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia 95: 95-103

Anon. 1978. Sperm Whale. pp. 59-63 in [Committee] (ed.). Mammals in the Seas. FAO Fisheries Series 5(1). Rome : FAO/UN.

Bannister, J.L. 1974. Whale populations and current research off Western Australia. pp. 239-254 in Schevill, W.E. (ed.). The Whale Problem. A status report. Cambridge, Mass : Harvard University Press pp. 1-419.

Bannister, J.L., Kemper, C.M. & Warneke, R.M. 1996. The Action Plan for Australian Cetaceans. Canberra : Australian Nature Conservation Agency 242 pp.

Bryden, M.M. 1978. Whales and whaling in Queensland waters. Proceedings of the Royal Society of Queensland 89: v-xviii

Evans, K.R. & Hindell, M.A. 2004. The age structure and growth of female sperm whales (Physeter catodon) in southern Australian waters. Journal of Zoology, London 263: 237-250

Gaskin, D.E. 1972. Whales, Dolphins and Seals, with Special Reference to the New Zealand Region. London : Heinemann 200 pp.

Guiler, E.R. 1978. Whale strandings in Tasmania since 1945 with notes on some seal reports. Papers and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania 112: 189-213

Kirkwood, G.P., Allen, K.R. & Bannister, J.L. 1980. An assessment of the Sperm Whale stock subject to Western Australian catching. Reports of the International Whaling Commission Special Issue 2: 147–149

Leatherwood, S. & Reeves, R.R. 1983. The Sierra Club Handbook of Whales and Dolphins. San Francisco : Sierra Club Books xviii 302 pp.

Warneke, R.M. 1983. Whale stranding — accident or design. Australian Natural History 21: 43-47

Weilgart, L. & Whitehead, H. 1997. Group-specific dialects and geographic variation in coda repertoire in South Pacific sperm whales. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 40: 277-285

Whitehead, H. 2002. Sperm whale, Physeter macrocaphalus. pp. 1165-1172 in Perrin, W.F., Wursig, B. & Thewissen, J.G.M. (eds). Encyclopedia of Marine Mammals. San Diego : Academic Press.

 

History of changes

Note that this list may be incomplete for dates prior to September 2013.
Published As part of group Action Date Action Type Compiler(s)
16-Dec-2010 02-May-2011 MODIFIED
15-Dec-2010 MODIFIED