| Species fact sheet | by Global Register of Migratory Species - www.groms.de |
| Use the GROMS database for dynamic search for migratory species, new links and references. |
| Eubalaena australis | (Desmoulins, 1822) |
| Synonym: | Balaena glacialis australis |
| Family: | Balaenidae |
| Order: | Cetacea |
| English: | Southern right whale |
| French: | Baleine australe |
| Spanish: | Ballena franca austral |
| German: | Südkaper (There's a German version of this page!) |
| Norwegian: | Sørkaper (There's a Norwegian version of this page!) |
| Migration: | interoceanic |
| Regions: | Antarctic, Oceania, South America, Sub-Saharan Africa |
“The right whale is a slow animal which frequents coastal and shelf habitats, feeding in high latitudes during summer, and calving in warmer waters in winter. By 1900 the northern right whale (Eubalaena glacialis) was considered rare due to extensive hunting. At present, its eastern North Atlantic stock appears to be essentially extinct, and the western North Atlantic stock consists of no more than 295 individuals, accurately estimated by photo-identification (Clapham et al. 1999). Recent analysis by Caswell et al. (1999) suggests that the population is in decline, in spite of strict protection. No reliable data are available for the North Pacific. The species is probably the most threatened of all baleen whales (Clapham et al. 1999). The closely related southern right whales (Eubalaena australis) have a circumpolar distribution on the southern hemisphere. They spend part of the year in inshore waters or near offshore islands. The species was exploited extensively for whale oil and baleen: around 60,000 individuals were killed by American whalers alone in the 1800s. Today, all four populations of Eubalaena australis are monitored closely, and all show annual increase rates of 6-14% (Clapham et al. 1999).”
From: Riede, K. (2001): Global Register of Migratory Species. Weltregister wandernder Tierarten. Münster (Landwirtschaftsverlag), p. 201, containing more about whales and dolphins (l.c., pp 64-68)
Recommended link(s):
| ARKive | Southern right whale (Eubalaena australis): description, pictures, movies... |
| OBIS-SEAMAP | Ocean Biogeographic Information System - Spatial Ecological Analysis of Megavertebrate Populations taxonomy, discription, distribution (map), ecology & behaviour, feeding & prey, threats & status of the Southern right whale |
| www.acsonline.org | American Cetacean Society Fact Sheet about the Right whale, including Eubalaena glacialis (North Atlantic right whale), Eubalaena japonica (North Pacific right whale), and Eubalaena australis (Southern right whale) |
| sea.unep-wcmc.org | UNEP-WCMC Species Database (German/English), showing taxonomy ("Names"), distribution ("Verbreitung"), status ("Status"), legal sources ("Legal"), text references ("Referenzen"), connotations ("Anmerkungen"), links to other databases ("Betriebsmittel"), and (links to) pictures (on other homepages) ("Photos") concerning the Southern right whale |
| Animal Diversity Web | University of Michigan - Museum of Zoology |
To gather more information about whales in general see the link collection at connotea.org: cetacea
Please help us by updating our link collection via connotea!
Feedback: mail to Klaus Riede
(Last update: 28.6.2007 by A. Tappenhölter)