BRYDESWHALEOCCURSONTHECOASTOFBRAZILHIDEOOMURA

Mr. S. Watase of TaiyoGyogyoK. K.
， who had ・been working forsome year
satthelandstationof SociedadedePescaTaiyoLtda atCaboFrio,Brazil,presente
dus two baleenplates from so‑calledseiwhales takenthereforidenti
五cationofthespe
cies. I
twasclearthatonebaleenhadbeen taken from a seiwhale, Balαenopterαbor
eαlis,having veryfineandwhite colo
red bristle
s. Anotherbaleen, however,isquitedifferentfromtheot
herand showst
ypicalfeatureso
fBrydesw
hale, Bαlαenopterαedeni(Fig.1). Bristlesoft
his plate arecoar
seand greyishincolor, though theplatei
tselfisbl
ack. Thel
engt
hoft
hep
lat
ea
lon
goute
rcurv
emeasures51cmand t
hewidth 19cm. Theratiobaleen width tobaleenl
engt
hi
s37.
3percent. Themeasuredlengthi
sshorterthanthelengthtogum line,becausethebaleen hasFig.l. Baleenplateo
faBrydeswhalefromthecoas
tofBrazil.

1

2

H. OMURA
TABLE 1. PARTICULARS OF THE BALEEN PLATE SHOWN IN FIG. 1
Date killed
Position
Sex
Body lengh
Baleen length (along outer curve and excludes bristles)
Width (inner side broken)

Sept. 27, 1960
22°56'S, 41°521
Male41 feet
51 cm
19cmw

been cut above this line. Since the inner side of the baleen was
damaged, the width is also shorter than the correct figure. There isa ground, however, to think that the measured length is not differ
greatly from the length to gum line and the difference between these
two lengths might be within 1 cm and the width should be added 2-3 cm.
If we take into account of this correction the ratio baleen width tobaleen length will become over 40 per cent and approach to 45 per
cent, a mean figure found by Olsen (1913) for this value (four individuals)
for the Bryde's whale from the coast of South Africa. Chittleborough(1959) found that the three Bryde's whales taken on the west coast ofAustralia differ in this respect, having a mean of 73 per cent. The
Bryde's whales from the coast of Australia, however, agree quite wellin this character to those from the coast of Japan as reported by Omura
and Fujino (1954).
Above will lead to a conclusionthat the Bryde's whales from theSouth Atlantic may differ in thisrespect from those from otheroceans, having longer baleen plates
or wide range of variation in theratio of baleen width to baleenlength. The shape of baleen plates
is deemed to connect with theshape of the skull, in particular
to that of rostrum. One striking
feature of the skull of the Bryde's
whale is the flat and straightpointing shape of the rostrum thanFig. 2. Cross section of beak, just cranial to the sei whale (Lonnberg, 1931;
blow-holes.
Balaenoptera edeni
2. B. borealis(Material obtained at Ayukawa, Japan byJunge, 1950; Omura, 1959). The
fiat rostrum of the Bryde's whale
is clearly shown compared withT. IcHIHARA)
that of sei whale in Fig. 2. Junge(1950) states, however, that "In brydei there is some variation. Lonnberg (1931, p. 2) points to the fact that the rostrum of Bryde's whale
1.

BRYDES WHALEOCCURSONTHECOASTOFBRAZIL

3(fromthecoastof South Africa)i
sfla
tand straightas compared withskullso
fboreαlis. Thi
sfeaturei
swellshowni
nthesideviewo
fthisskull(1.c.
,plate1 fig.1). Inthe specimen i
nt
heB
r
i
ti
s
h Museum,however, t
he rostrum ismore curvedt
other
ostralsi
de. Iti
santi‑ci
pated,t
he
r
e
for
e,t
ha
tt
her
ei
sr
at
he
rawiderangeo
fv
ar
iat
i
oni
nt
he
r
at
i
oo
fb
ale
e
nwidthtobaleenlengt
hamongBrydeswhalesfromtheSouthAtlant
ic, whereassuchev
ide
ncehasneve
rbeenshowns
ofarfromthos
efromtheotheroceans.
Furtherev
idencesthattheBrydeswhaleoccursontheBraziliancoast
were supplied byMr. E. Tanaka of Taiyo GyogyoK. K.
， who has
beenworkinga
tt
hel
andst
at
iona
tCaboFr
io. He sentu
ssomephoto‑graphso
ftheBrydeswhalet
akent
hereaswellassomeinfor
mations.
These photographs show thecharactersofthe Brydes whale,i.
e.
broaderpalate between rowso
fbaleenp
lates(Fig.3),v
entralgrooves

Fig.3. Brydesswhal巴 fromth巴 coas
tofBrazil‑1.
(Cabo F
rio,196
1. P
hoto.E. TANAKA)
・−幅周回圃t

一一一
守宮~－－ーー一ーーー－ー ーl
豆京一？主事司毘哩開通部）ヨー−，一一一一−−
r二；4ー－－~ －－－~ー 寸・叩判会主叫いFig.4. Brydeswhalefromthecoas
tofBrazil‑2.
(CaboF
rio,1961. P
hoto.E. TANAKA)

H.0
1¥
瓜J
RA

4Fig.5. Brydeswhalefromthecoas
tofBrazil‑3.
(CaboF
rio,1961. Photo. E. TANAKA)

extendposterioly beyond umbilicus(Fig.4), and ridges on the head(Fig.5,seealsoOmura 1962).
Accordingt
otheinformationatotalo
f1
2Brydeswhalesweret
akentherei
n1
961asof1
4th September (May2, June 8, September 2).
Theseinclu
de7malesand 5femalesand theirbodylength
srangefrom
39feett
o43feetinbot
hsexes,excepton
efemaleo
f47feetinlength.
These whales were takeninanareao
fLat. 23°‑24°Sand Long. 41°ーTABLE2. BODYPROPORTION OFA BRYDES 羽THALEFROMTHECOAST
OF BRAZIL(Measured by Mr.E. TANAKA)
Date killed
Position
SexSept.14,1961Lat.23°
13'S, Long. 4
1°53'W
Male
Measurements

Totallength of bodyLower jaw,projectionbeyond tipofsnout
Tipo
fsnouttoangleo
f gapeTipofsnou
ttoc
entr
eo
feyetionoff
lipperTipo
fsnou
ttoanteriorins巴r
ocentreo
fear
Centre of巴yetNotch of日uke
sto posterior emar
ginatio
nofdors
al自1
1stoc
entr
eo
fanus
Notch of日uke
Notchof日ukesto.
umbilicus
Centreofanust
oc
entr
eo
fr
eproduct
iveapertureVer
tical heighto
fdor
salfinLength of base ofdor
salfinFlipper,ti
ptoa
xillaFlipper,tiptoanterior endo
flower border
Flipper,greates
twidthGaeatestg
ir
th (ata point1
10cmanter
iortoumbilicus)
T
ai
lf
lu
kes,tipt
ot
ip(estimated)

flen
gth
Length in cm % o
1,30035250258395
72
365338608
103405012517734600
290

1002.7
19.
219.
8
30.4
5.528.
126.
046.8
7.93.
1
3.8
9.6
13.
6
2.6
46.
2
22.3

BRYDE'S WHALE OCCURS ON THE COAST OF BRAZIL

542°W.
Mr. E. Tanaka measured body proportions of a Bryde's whale whichis shown in Table 2 for reference.
Sincere thanks are due to Messrs. S. Watase and E. Tanaka who
presented us valuable material on which this note is based.

REFERENCES
CHITTLEBOROUGH, R. G. (1959). Balaenoptera Brydei Olsen on the west coast of Australia.
Norsk Hvalfangst-Tirl., 48 (2); 62-6.
JUNGE, G. C. A. (1950). On a specimen of the rare fin whale, Balaenoptera edeni Anderson,
stranded on Pulu Sugi near Singapore. Zoologische Verhandelingen, no. 9: 1-26.
LONNBERG, E. (1931). The skeleton of Balaenoptera brydei 0. Olsen. Arkiv f. Zoologi,
23A (1).
OLSEN, rp. (1913). On the external characters and biology of Bryde's whale (Balaenopterabrydei), a new rorqual from the coast of South Africa. Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1073
-90.
OMURA, H. (1959). Bryde's whale from the coast of Japan. Sci. Rep. Whales Res. Inst.,
no. 14: 1-33: 7-18.
- - - (1962). Further information on Bryde's whale from the coast of Japan. Sci. Rep.
Whales Res. Ins., no. 16. .
OMURA, H. and FUJINO, K. (1954). Sei whles in the adjacent waters of Japan. II. Furtherstudies on the external characters. Sci. Rep. Whales Res. Inst., no. 9: 89-103.