Pygmy Sperm Whale

About the Species

Pygmy sperm whales are toothed whales named after the waxy substance—spermaceti—found in their heads. The spermaceti is an oil sac that helps the whales produce sound. Like squids, pygmy sperm whales can produce a dark, ink-like liquid that helps them escape from predators.

Pygmy sperm whales are found in temperate and tropical seas worldwide. They look very similar to dwarf sperm whales, making it very difficult to distinguish between the two species in the field. Little is known about both species because of limited information, and they are considered rare.

Pygmy sperm whales, like all marine mammals, are protected under the Marine Mammal Protection Act. NOAA Fisheries and its partners are working to conserve pygmy sperm whales and further our understanding of this species through research and conservation activities.

Status

NOAA Fisheries estimates population size in its stock assessment reports.

Pygmy sperm whales usually avoid vessels and planes, the tools that our scientists use to measure population size. Additionally, the whales only come to the water’s surface when the sea and weather conditions are very calm. As a result, scientists rarely see pygmy sperm whales at sea. This makes it difficult to estimate their minimum population size or current population trends.

Protected Status

Appearance

Pygmy sperm whales have a small, compact body with a small and rounded dorsal fin. Each individual whale’s dorsal fin is a slightly different shape. While on the water’s surface, pygmy sperm whales have a low profile because their head and back are somewhat flat. Their head is sometime described as shark-like because of their pointed snout and narrow lower jaw.

Pygmy sperm whales have wrinkled skin and a brown to blue-gray back. Their underside is paler with white or pink tones. They do not have teeth in their upper jaw but have 10 to 16 pairs of teeth in the lower jaw. Their eyes are dark and bulging, and they have a marking behind the eye that is often called a false gill because it looks like a fish's gill cover.

Pygmy sperm whales can sometimes be confused with dwarf sperm whales, their closest relative. These two types of whales were not distinguished as separate species until 1966. In the wild, it is very difficult to distinguish between them because they have similar appearances and geographic ranges.

Behavior and Diet

Pygmy sperm whales are usually seen either alone or in small groups of six to seven individuals. These groups can vary based on age and sex, but little else is known about their social organization.

Pygmy sperm whales spend very little time at the water’s surface and almost never approach vessels. When they are seen at the surface, they are usually either swimming slowly or lying still (also known as “logging”). They will slowly sink and disappear from view without showing their flukes before diving back into the water. While they do have blowholes, they do not have a visible blow at the surface.

Pygmy sperm whales’ use of the "squid tactic" makes them unique among other types of whales. Each pygmy sperm whale has a sac filled with dark liquid in its intestine. The whale can release more than 3 gallons of dark, reddish-brown liquid, or “ink,” from this sac. The liquid creates a dark cloud in the water to help protect the whales when they feel threatened or are trying to escape predators.

Pygmy sperm whales can dive at least 1,000 feet in search of food. They typically feed in mid- and deep-water environments, as well as near the ocean floor. They eat cephalopods (e.g., squid and octopus), crustaceans (e.g., crabs and shrimp), and fish. The whales use echolocation to locate prey. This means that, like bats, pygmy sperm whales use sound to navigate and "see" the world around them. They do so by producing sounds from their melons (or foreheads) that reflect off the objects around them.

Where They Live

Pygmy sperm whales have a wide distribution. They live in tropical, subtropical, and temperate waters in oceans and seas around the world. They are most common off coasts and along continental shelves (the edges of continents lying under the ocean).

In the United States, pygmy sperm whales live off the coasts of Hawaii, the Pacific Northwest, the North Atlantic, and the northern Gulf of Mexico. They may be most common off the southeastern coasts, as the most strandings have happened there.

In the Southern Hemisphere, pygmy sperm whales live in the Tasman Sea and the waters around Chile, South Africa, and Uruguay. In the Northern Hemisphere, they live in the waters around the Netherlands, northwestern Europe, the Azores, Nova Scotia, and Japan. Their migration patterns are currently unknown.

Lifespan & Reproduction

Pygmy sperm whales can live up to 23 years. They reach sexual maturity when they are 4 to 5 years old. The mating and calving season lasts about 9 months and peaks in March through August in the Northern Hemisphere. Pregnancy lasts for about 9 to 11 months, and females can give birth multiple years in a row. Calves are weaned after 1 year.

Threats

Entanglement

One of the main threats to pygmy sperm whales is becoming entangled or captured in commercial fishing gear such trap lines, pots, and gillnets. Once entangled, they may swim for long distances dragging attached gear, potentially resulting in fatigue, compromised feeding ability, or severe injury. These conditions can lead to reduced reproductive success and death.

Hunting

Historically, pygmy sperm whales were hunted during the 19th century. While they are no longer hunted in the United States, commercial harpoon fisheries in Indonesia, the Lesser Antilles, and Japan continue to take pygmy sperm whales.

Vessel Strikes

Accidental vessel strikes can occasionally injure or kill pygmy sperm whales. They are vulnerable to vessel strikes throughout their range, but the risk is higher in some areas with heavy ship traffic.

Marine Debris

Like many marine animals, pygmy sperm whales can ingest marine debris. They could mistake debris in the deep scattering layer where they feed for prey and incidentally ingested it, leading to possible injury or death. Some stranded pygmy sperm whales have been found with plastic and other garbage blocking their guts.

Ocean Noise

Underwater noise pollution can interrupt the normal behavior of pygmy sperm whales, which rely on sound to communicate. As ocean noise increases from human sources, communication space decreases; the whales cannot hear each other, or discern other signals in their environment as they used to in an undisturbed ocean.

Different levels of sound can disturb important activities, such as feeding, migrating, and socializing. Mounting evidence from scientific research has documented that ocean noise also causes marine mammals to change the frequency or amplitude of calls, decrease foraging behavior, become displaced from preferred habitat, or increase the level of stress hormones in their bodies. If loud enough, noise can cause permanent or temporary hearing loss.

Scientific Classification

Kingdom	Animalia
Phylum	Chordata
Class	Mammalia
Order	Cetacea
Family	Kogiidae
Genus	Kogia
Species	breviceps