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Electra
EOL Text
The classification of melon-headed whales has been debated throughout history, as their relationships to dolphins and pilot or killer whales are unclear.
Melon-headed whales are also known by the common names little killer whales and many-toothed blackfish. They are known commonly as elektra tmavá, plískavice Elektra, or plískavice tmavá in Czech, and calderón in Spanish.
The first known specimens are 2 skulls described by Gray in his 1846 report and he named them “electra” from the Greek word “Elektra”, meaning amber, because of the amber color of the bones. A third skull was found in Hawaii in 1848 and a fourth in Magras in 1869. It was not until 1963 that a live specimen was caught at Sagami Bay in Honshu, Japan. The once extremely rare species began to appear in more abundance as more than 500 were seen in Suruga Bay in Japan in 1951 and 250 were caught. The genus was officially named “Peponocephala” based on the Greek words “peponis”, a melon, and “kephalos”, a head (Dutton 1981).
Overall, very little information is available for this species due to the small number of individuals observed.
License | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ |
Rights holder/Author | ©1995-2013, The Regents of the University of Michigan and its licensors |
Source | http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/accounts/Peponocephala_electra/ |
Especie altamente social. Por lo general, se localizan en grupos de 100-500 individuos con un máximo de 2000. Al igual que algunas especies de delfines, nadan en el oleaje que provocan las embarcaciones (ahorro de energía) y desplazan, incluso, a otras especies.
Endemic to Lake Malawi. Occurs at Likoma Island as well as Nkhata Bay and on the Mozambican shore from Chiwindi to Lumbauco at Mara Point, and from Lumessi to the Malawi border and further south to Ntekete in Malawi.
License | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ |
Rights holder/Author | © International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources |
Source | http://www.iucnredlist.org/apps/redlist/details/60981 |
aquarium: commercial
License | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/ |
Rights holder/Author | Crispina B. Binohlan, FishBase |
Source | http://www.fishbase.org/summary/SpeciesSummary.php?id=2147 |
in tropical and subtropical oceanic waters between 40ºN and 35ºS
License | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
Rights holder/Author | This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 License |
Source | http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=137103 |
Tamaño poblacional
México:
No hay información disponible.
Mundial:
No hay información disponible.
License | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/ |
Rights holder/Author | CONABIO |
Source | http://www.conabio.gob.mx/conocimiento/ise/fichasnom/Peponocephalaelectra00.pdf |
Red List Criteria
Year Assessed
Assessor/s
Reviewer/s
Contributor/s
History
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1994Insufficiently Known(Groombridge 1994)
License | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ |
Rights holder/Author | © International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources |
Source | http://www.iucnredlist.org/apps/redlist/details/16564 |
En Japón, para consumo de carne y grasa; ocasionalmente, en acuarios.
Eastern Africa: Lake Malawi.