page_title: List of mammals of Great Britain
section_title: Whales
hierarchical_section_title: List of mammals of Great Britain / Order: Cetacea / Whales
caption_attribution_description: English: Bull killer whale approaching a whale watching boat in the Strait of Juan de Fuca near Victoria BC in the summer of 2004
context_page_description: This is a list of mammals of Great Britain.
  The Great Britain mammal fauna is impoverished compared with that of continental Europe. This is because there was only a short time between the last ice age and the flooding of the land bridge between Britain and the rest of Europe. The list only has land species which crossed before the creation of the English Channel, and those later brought in by humans.
  Native species have three possible definitions:
  a species which colonised the islands during the glacial retreat at the end of the last ice age;
  a species that was present when the English Channel was created;
  or, a species that was present in prehistory.
  This list includes mammals from the small islands around Great Britain and the Channel Islands. There are no endemic mammal species in Great Britain, although four distinct subspecies of rodents have arisen on small islands.
context_section_description: The order Cetacea includes whales, dolphins and porpoises. They are the mammals most fully adapted to aquatic life with a spindle-shaped nearly hairless body, protected by a thick layer of blubber, and forelimbs and tail modified to provide propulsion underwater.
  Suborder: Mysticeti
  Family: Balaenidae
  Genus: Eubalaena
  North Atlantic right whale Eubalaena glacialis EN
  Family: Balaenopteridae
  Subfamily: Balaenopterinae
  Genus: Balaenoptera
  Fin whale Balaenoptera physalis
  Minke whale Balaenoptera acutorostrata LR/NT
  Sei whale Balaenoptera borealis
  Blue whale Balaenoptera musculus 
  Genus: Megaptera
  Humpback whale Megaptera novaeangliae
  Suborder: Odontoceti
  Superfamily: Platanistoidea
  Family: Monodontidae
  Genus: Delphinapterus
  Beluga Delphinapterus leucas VU
  Family: Phocoenidae
  Genus: Phocoena
  Harbour porpoise Phocoena phocoena VU
  Family: Physeteridae
  Genus: Physeter
  Sperm whale Physeter macrocephalus VU
  Family: Kogiidae
  Genus: Kogia
  Pygmy sperm whale Kogia breviceps LR/LC
  Family: Ziphidae
  Genus: Ziphius
  Cuvier's beaked whale Ziphius cavirostris DD
  Subfamily: Hyperoodontidae
  Genus: Hyperoodon
  Northern bottlenose whale Hyperoodon ampullatus LR/CD
  Genus: Mesoplodon
  Sowerby's beaked whale Mesoplodon bidens DD
  Gervais' beaked whale Mesoplodon europaeus DD
  True's beaked whale Mesoplodon mirus DD
  Genus: Pseudorca
  False killer whale Pseudorca crassidens
caption: Bull killer whale
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