Animal Diversity Web

Ge­o­graphic Range

South­ern right whale dol­phins (Lis­sodel­phis per­onii) have a cir­cum­po­lar dis­tri­b­u­tion near the sub-Antarc­tic Polar Front, which is the lo­ca­tion where Antarc­tic sur­face wa­ters that are mov­ing north­ward sink below sub-Antarc­tic wa­ters. It has also been com­monly seen year-round around Chatham Is­land and the Falk­land Is­lands. Their range reaches as far south as the Antarc­tic Con­ver­gence around 58 to 61 de­grees south lat­i­tude and as far north as the Sub­trop­i­cal Con­ver­gence off the shores of Peru and Chile. (Rif­f­en­burgh, 2007; Rose and Payne, 1991; Skin­ner and Chim­imba, 2005)

• Biogeographic Regions
• neotropical
  • native
• antarctica
  • native

Habi­tat

South­ern right whale dol­phins are pelagic, oc­cu­py­ing cool wa­ters that are deep off­shore and are 8 to 19 de­grees Cel­sius. They often dive to depths of 200 me­ters in search of food. (Jef­fer­son, et al., 1994)

• Habitat Regions
• polar
• saltwater or marine

• Aquatic Biomes
• pelagic

• Average depth

  200 m

  656.17 ft

Phys­i­cal De­scrip­tion

Adult south­ern right whale dol­phins are pre­dom­i­nantly white on their ven­tral side and black dor­sally. On the pos­te­rior flank, the two col­ors meet and curve down­ward to the flip­per in­ser­tion, then swing up­ward to the melon, which is the swollen por­tion of a dol­phin's head that pro­duces vo­cal­iza­tions, in front of the blow­hole. The beak, the an­te­rior melon, and the flip­pers are white. The dor­sal side of the flukes are grey. Vari­a­tions have been re­ported, in­clud­ing white spots on the head and the amount of the black and white col­oration. Calves are born with brown or grey areas in­stead of black and white, but de­velop adult col­oration within their first year. The south­ern right whale dol­phin is char­ac­ter­ized by a lack of a dor­sal fin or ridge. The genus name, Lis­sodel­phis, de­scribes this char­ac­ter­is­tic. It is de­rived from the Greek words lisso, mean­ing smooth, and del­phis mean­ing dol­phin. Some ad­di­tional body shape char­ac­ter­is­tics in­clude: a slen­der, com­pressed body, a short but well-de­fined beak, small, re­curved flip­pers, and slightly con­cave flukes with a deep notch in the me­dian. These dol­phins are nor­mally 2 to 3 m long, rarely ex­ceed­ing 3.1 m. Adult weights can reach 59 to 100 kg, with males being larger. (Jef­fer­son, et al., 1994; Jef­fer­son, et al., 1993; Kalman, 2003; Kli­nowska, 1991; New­comer, et al., 1996)

• Other Physical Features
• endothermic
• bilateral symmetry

• Sexual Dimorphism
• male larger

• Average mass

  59 to 100 kg

  lb

• Range length

  3.1 (high) m

  10.17 (high) ft

• Average length

  2 to 3 m

  ft

Re­pro­duc­tion

There is no pub­lished in­for­ma­tion on the mat­ing sys­tems of south­ern right whale dol­phins. Even though the exact calv­ing sea­son is not known, most sight­ings of calves are in win­ter or early spring. Re­search sug­gests that males reach sex­ual ma­tu­rity at lengths be­tween 212 and 220 cm and fe­males be­tween 206 and 212 cm. (Jef­fer­son, et al., 1994)

Lit­tle is known about the re­pro­duc­tion cy­cles of the south­ern right whale dol­phins. Only six preg­nant fe­male dol­phins have been seen stranded, and the re­pro­duc­tive be­hav­ior of these in­di­vid­u­als were not in­ves­ti­gated. (Cruick­shank and Brown, 1981; Jef­fer­son, et al., 1994)

• Key Reproductive Features
• gonochoric/gonochoristic/dioecious (sexes separate)
• sexual
• viviparous

Noth­ing is known re­gard­ing parental in­vest­ment strate­gies of south­ern right whale dol­phins.

Lifes­pan/Longevity

No pub­lished data re­port on the lifes­pan of the south­ern right whale dol­phin in the wild. How­ever, in a closely-re­lated species, the north­ern right whale dol­phin, the lifes­pan is listed as 42 years. It is ex­pected that the south­ern rel­a­tive's lifes­pan is sim­i­lar. In cap­tiv­ity, south­ern right whale dol­phins do not sur­vive long. The av­er­age dol­phin lives just 3 weeks, but one has been recorded liv­ing up to 15 months. (Jef­fer­son, et al., 1994; New­comer, et al., 1996; Visser, et al., 2004)

• Range lifespan
  Status: captivity

  1 to 15 months

Be­hav­ior

South­ern right whale dol­phins are gre­gar­i­ous, mean­ing they are so­cia­ble and pre­fer being sur­rounded by oth­ers. The av­er­age herd size is 210 in­di­vid­u­als, al­though re­ports of herd con­tain­ing up to 1000 in­di­vid­u­als exist. South­ern right whale dol­phins in­ter­act with other ma­rine species, in­clud­ing dol­phins and pilot whales. When swim­ming in slow-mov­ing groups, the dol­phins only ex­pose the head and blow­hole above the water sur­face to breathe. In fast-mov­ing groups, the herds may demon­strate two dif­fer­ent strate­gies. The first strat­egy is to swim rapidly just below the sur­face, quickly ris­ing to breathe, then going back under. The other strat­egy is to also swim rapidly at the sur­face, but to per­form low angle leaps and cre­ate a sur­face dis­tur­bance. They also per­form nu­mer­ous tricks while swim­ming fast in­clud­ing belly flops, side slaps, and fluke slaps. With their long, slen­der bod­ies, they can also re­duce the amount of drag by tak­ing nu­mer­ous tail strokes while the rest of the body is pri­mar­ily out of the water. South­ern right whale dol­phins are known to be fast swim­mers, but very few di­rect speed mea­sure­ments in open ocean are on record. When div­ing, in­di­vid­ual dol­phins have been recorded to dive for 10 to 75 sec­onds, but en­tire herds can dive up to 6.5 min­utes. In the com­pany of other species, south­ern right whale dol­phins will usu­ally ride the bow waves cre­ated by ships in the ocean. When alone, most dol­phins avoid ships. (Jef­fer­son, et al., 1994; Jef­fer­son, et al., 1994; Jef­fer­son, et al., 1993; New­comer, et al., 1996)

• Key Behaviors
• natatorial
• motile
• social

Home Range

There is no re­ported home range for south­ern right whale dol­phins.

Com­mu­ni­ca­tion and Per­cep­tion

There are no recorded sounds de­scrib­ing south­ern right whale dol­phin vo­cal­iza­tions. The closely re­lated north­ern right whale dol­phins vo­cal­ize in clicks at high rep­e­ti­tious rates, also using a few whis­tles. South­ern right whale dol­phins use echolo­ca­tion to help them per­ceive their en­vi­ron­ment if other in­di­vid­u­als are nearby. (Jef­fer­son, et al., 1994; Lip­sky, 2008)

• Communication Channels
• acoustic

• Perception Channels
• visual
• tactile
• acoustic
• ultrasound
• echolocation
• chemical

Food Habits

South­ern right whale dol­phins pri­mar­ily feed on mesopelagic fishes, de­scrib­ing fish that swim at depths be­tween 200 and 1000 me­ters. These in­clude lat­er­n­fish, big­eye tuna, and squids. (Allen, et al., 2011; Jef­fer­son, et al., 1994; Kli­nowska, 1991)

• Primary Diet
• carnivore
  • piscivore

• Animal Foods
• fish
• mollusks

Pre­da­tion

There are no records of pre­da­tion for south­ern right whale dol­phins, but killer whales, Patag­on­ian tooth­fish, and sleeper sharks are likely preda­tors. (Jef­fer­son, et al., 1994)

Ecosys­tem Roles

While ef­fects of most par­a­sites are largely un­known, a few are known to cause harm to the south­ern right whale dol­phin. The trema­tode fluke (Na­sitrema) can cause major dam­age to the air si­nuses, inner ears, and brain. This is so se­vere that it has been stated as an in­flu­ence in the strand­ing and death of some south­ern right whale dol­phins. A Rhab­ditea par­a­site (Stenu­rus) dam­ages the lungs of the dol­phins, while the par­a­site (Anisakis sim­plex) causes dele­te­ri­ous ef­fects on the stom­ach. (Jef­fer­son, et al., 1994; New­comer, et al., 1996)

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Pos­i­tive

South­ern right whale dol­phins are oc­ca­sion­ally caught for food or crab bait off the coasts of Peru and Chile. (Jef­fer­son, et al., 1993; New­comer, et al., 1996)

• Positive Impacts
• food

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Neg­a­tive

There are no known neg­a­tive eco­nomic in­flu­ences of the south­ern right whale dol­phins.

Con­ser­va­tion Sta­tus

Cur­rently, the south­ern right whale dol­phin is not at the cen­ter of con­ser­va­tion ef­forts. Al­though they are deemed abun­dant, re­search about them is still lack­ing and they are listed as "Data De­fi­cient" on the IUCN Red List. ("Lis­sodel­phis per­onii", 2012; Jef­fer­son, et al., 1993; New­comer, et al., 1996)

• IUCN Red List

  Data Deficient
  More information

• IUCN Red List

  Data Deficient
  More information

• US Federal List

  No special status

• CITES

  No special status

• State of Michigan List

  No special status

Con­trib­u­tors

Erica Stan­ley (au­thor), Rad­ford Uni­ver­sity, Laura Podzikowski (au­thor), Spe­cial Pro­jects, Karen Pow­ers (ed­i­tor), Rad­ford Uni­ver­sity, Kier­sten Newtoff (ed­i­tor), Rad­ford Uni­ver­sity, Melissa Whistle­man (ed­i­tor), Rad­ford Uni­ver­sity.

Ref­er­ences

2012. "Lis­sodel­phis per­onii" (On-line). IUCN Red List of Threat­ened Species. Ac­cessed Feb­ru­ary 08, 2012 at http://​www.​iucnredlist.​org/​apps/​redlist/​details/​12126/​0.

Allen, S., J. Morten­son, S. Webb. 2011. Field Guide to Ma­rine Mam­mals of the Pa­cific Coast: Baja, Cal­i­for­nia, Ore­gon, Wash­ing­ton, British Co­lum­bia. Cal­i­for­nia: Uni­ver­sity of Cal­i­for­nia Press.

Brown, S. 1973. Re­cent sight records of south­ern right whale dol­phins in the Pa­cific Ocean. The Ma­rine Ob­server, 43: 78-80.

Cruick­shank, R., S. Brown. 1981. Re­cent ob­ser­va­tions and some his­tor­i­cal records of South­ern right whale dol­phins Lis­sodel­phis per­onii. Fish­eries Bul­letin South Africa, 15: 109-121.

Culik, B. 2004. Re­view of Small Cetaceans: Dis­tri­b­u­tion, Be­hav­ior, Mi­gra­tion and Threats. Ger­many: United Na­tions En­vi­ron­ment Pro­gramme & Con­ser­va­tion of Mi­gra­tory Species.

Jef­fer­son, T., M. New­comer, S. Leather­wood, K. Van Waere­beek. 1994. Right Whale Dol­phins Lis­sodel­phis bo­re­alis and Lis­sodel­phis per­onii.. Pp. 335-362 in S Ridg­way, R Har­ri­son, eds. Hand­book of Ma­rine Mam­mals, Vol. 5. Lon­don: Uni­ver­sity Aca­d­e­mic Press Lim­ited.

Jef­fer­son, T., S. Leather­wood, M. Web­ber. 1993. Ma­rine Mam­mals of the World: FAO Species Iden­ti­fi­ca­tion. Rome, Italy: Food and Agri­cul­tural Or­ga­ni­za­tion of the United Na­tions & United Na­tions En­vi­ron­ment Pro­gramme.

Kalman, B. 2003. Dol­phins Around the World. New York: Crab­tree Pub­lish­ing Com­pany.

Kli­nowska, M. 1991. Dol­phins, Por­poises and Whales of the World: the IUCN Red Data Book. Cam­bridge: IUCN.

Lip­sky, J. 2008. Right Whale dol­phins. Pp. 958-962 in W Per­rin, B Wur­sig, J Thewis­sem, eds. En­cy­clo­pe­dia of Ma­rine Mam­mals, Vol. 2, Sec­ond Edi­tion. Lon­don: Aca­d­e­mic Press.

New­comer, M., T. Jef­fer­son, R. Brownell. 1996. Lis­sodel­phis per­onii. Mam­malian Species, 531: 1-5.

Rif­f­en­burgh, B. 2007. Small cetaceans: overview. Pp. 216-217 in En­cy­clo­pe­dia of the Antarc­tic, Vol. 1, First Edi­tion. New York: CRC Press.

Rose, B., A. Payne. 1991. Oc­cur­rence and be­hav­ior of the South­ern right whale dol­phin Lis­sodel­phis per­onii off Namibia. Ma­rine Mam­mal Sci­ence, 7: 25-34.

Skin­ner, J., C. Chim­imba. 2005. The Mam­mals of the South African Sub­re­gion. Lon­don: Cam­bridge Uni­ver­sity Press.

Visser, I., D. Fertl, L. Pusser. 2004. Melanis­tic South­ern right-whale dol­phins (Lis­sodel­phis per­onii) off Kaik­oura, New Zealand, with records of other anom­alously all-black cetacean. New Zealand Jour­nal of Ma­rine and Fresh­wa­ter Re­search, 38: 833-836.