page_title: List of mammals of Great Britain
section_title: Whales and dolphins
hierarchical_section_title: List of mammals of Great Britain / Whales and dolphins
caption_attribution_description: English: A Harbour Porpoise Dansk: Marsvin Svenska: Vanlig tumlare
context_page_description: This is a list of mammals of Great Britain. The mammal fauna of Great Britain is somewhat impoverished compared to that of Continental Europe due to the short period of time between the last ice age and the flooding of the land bridge between Great Britain and the rest of Europe. Only those land species which crossed before the creation of the English Channel and those introduced by humans exist in Great Britain.
  Great Britain holds important populations of grey seals and rare bat species.
  Native species are considered to be species which are today present in the region in question, and have been continuously present in that region since a certain period of time. When applied to Great Britain, three possible definitions of this time constraint are:
  a species that 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: Superorder: LaurasiatheriaOrder: ArtiodactylaInfraorder: Cetacea
  The infraorder 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 CR(functionally extinct in eastern north Atlantic)
  Family: Balaenopteridae
  Subfamily: Balaenopterinae
  Genus: Balaenoptera
  Fin whale, Balaenoptera physalus NT
  Common minke whale, Balaenoptera acutorostrata LC
  Sei whale, Balaenoptera borealis EN
  Blue whale, Balaenoptera musculus EN
  Genus: Megaptera
  Humpback whale, Megaptera novaeangliae LC
  Suborder: Odontoceti
  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 NA
  Family: Ziphidae
  Genus: Ziphius
  Cuvier's beaked whale, Ziphius cavirostris DD
  Subfamily: Hyperoodontinae
  Genus: Hyperoodon
  Northern bottlenose whale, Hyperoodon ampullatus DD
  Genus: Mesoplodon
  Sowerby's beaked whale, Mesoplodon bidens DD
  Gervais' beaked whale, Mesoplodon europaeus DD
  True's beaked whale, Mesoplodon mirus DD
  Family: Delphinidae (marine dolphins)
  Genus: Pseudorca
  False killer whale, Pseudorca crassidens NA
  Genus: Delphinus
  Short-beaked common dolphin, Delphinus delphis DD
  Genus: Tursiops
  Common bottlenose dolphin, Tursiops truncatus DD
  Genus: Stenella
  Striped dolphin, Stenella coeruleoalba DD
  Genus: Lagenorhynchus
  Atlantic white-sided dolphin, Lagenorhynchus acutus LC
  White-beaked dolphin, Lagenorhynchus albirostris LC
  Genus: Grampus
  Risso's dolphin, Grampus griseus DD
  Genus: Orcinus
  Orca, Orcinus orca DD
caption: Harbour porpoise
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