Description
The Melon-head has a body shape rather like a torpedo. Its head is a rounded cone giving the animal its common name. The body is more or less uniformly light grey except for a dark grey face – sometimes called the "mask". The flippers are long and pointed. The dorsal fin is tall with a pointed tip – reminiscent of its cousin the Orca. When viewed in profile its head is not as rounded as the Pygmy Killer and this may aid identification.
This whale is capable of very fast swimming, particularly when startled. In flight, it often makes short low jumps clear of the sea surface, splashing lots water. Melon-heads usually gather in large numbers (at least 100 and possibly as many as 1,000 on rare occasions) and sometimes strand together.
The Melon-head weighs 10–15 kilograms (22–33 lb) at birth and is 1 metre (3.3 ft) long. An adult grows up to 3 metres (9.8 ft) long and weighs over 200 kilograms (440 lb). The whales' lifespan is at least 20 years and probably more than 30 years for females.
Their primary diet is squid.
Hawaiian melon-heads spend much of their daytime at the surface resting.
Read more about this topic: Melon-headed Whale
Famous quotes containing the word description:
“To give an accurate description of what has never occurred is not merely the proper occupation of the historian, but the inalienable privilege of any man of parts and culture.”
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)
“It [Egypt] has more wonders in it than any other country in the world and provides more works that defy description than any other place.”
—Herodotus (c. 484–424 B.C.)
“The great object in life is Sensation—to feel that we exist, even though in pain; it is this “craving void” which drives us to gaming, to battle, to travel, to intemperate but keenly felt pursuits of every description whose principal attraction is the agitation inseparable from their accomplishment.”
—George Gordon Noel Byron (1788–1824)