Porpoise
From LoveToKnow 1911
PORPOISE (sometimes spelled Porpus and Porpesse), a name derived from the 0. Fr. porpeis, for porc-peis, i.e. pig-fish, Lat. porcus, pig, and piscis, fish; the mod. Fr. marsouin is borrowed from the Ger.
Porpoise
Related Category: Vertebrate Zoology
small whale of the family Phocaenidae, allied to the dolphin. Porpoises, like other whales, are mammals; they are warm-blooded, breathe air, and give birth to live young, which they suckle with milk.
Porpoises are predators of fish, squid, and crustaceans. Although they are capable of dives up to 200 m, they generally hunt in shallow coastal waters. They are found most commonly in small groups of fewer than ten individuals.
Gulf porpoise, vaquita, cochito
Phocoena sinus
As well as having one of the smallest distributions of all marine cetaceans, they are also one of the smallest in size.
Subspecies
None.
Dall's Porpoise
Dall's Porpoise (Phocoenoides dalli) is a fast-swimming, black-and-white toothed whale. It makes a distinctive "rooster tail" spray of water as it surfaces to breathe.
DALL'S PORPOISE FACTS
Description
Dall's Porpoise is a stocky compact porpoise with small head. It is black with bright white sides and underside. The tail and the dorsal fin is usually tipped withy whitish gray.
Harbour porpoise
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Porpoise species include the Harbor, Gulf of California, Burmeister's, Spectacled, Finless and Dall's porpoises.
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This porpoise is black on the dorsal side with oval-shaped white markings along the flanks and white on the ventral side.
Harbor Porpoise Range
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Fast Facts
Type: Mammal Diet: Carnivore Average life span in the wild: 20 years Size: 4.9 to 6.6 ft (1.5 to 2 m) Weight: 110 to 200 lbs (50 to 90 kg) Group name: Shoal Did you know?
Harbour porpoise (Phocoena phocoena)
Striped dolphin (Stenella coeruleoalba)
Cuvier's beaked whale (Ziphius cavirostris)
Pacific white-sided dolphin (Lagenorhynchus obliquidens)
Short-beaked common dolphin (Delphinus delphis) ...
Whales, dolphins, and porpoises
There are over 80 species of cetaceans, a group made up of whales, dolphins and porpoises.
Dolphins, Whales and Porpoises
Whales
Whales are mammals. They bear live young and feed them milk and they have lungs. They breathe air through a blow hole at the top of their heads. Whales often travel in groups or pods.
Tursiops gillii
Pacific Bottlenosed Dolphin, Common Porpoise, Cowfish
DELPHINIDAE (Whale Family)
Description ...
Dall's Porpoise
Order: Cetacea
Family: Phocoenidae
Phocoenoides dalli - male,upper; female, lower
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Harbor Porpoise
Phocoena phocoena
Common in the Gulf of Maine, but not a boat followers and not usually seen from whale watching boats. Appears only briefly on the surface and then swims away underwater.
Porpoises are carnivorous, and their diet consists mainly of fish. They like to hunt schools of fish but will also eat squid, herring, and anchovies. The average porpoise will take in 4% to 9% of their body weight in fish daily.
A porpoise (a small toothed whale) from the Southern Hemisphere.
The largest toothed whale, over 50 feet long. It eats giant squid.
The walrus is a large mammal that spends most of its life in icy seas.
and porpoises are examples of odontocetes, as are belugas, narwhals, killer whales, sperm whales, and beaked whales. Baleen whales lack teeth completely as adults (although teeth are present in fetal baleen whales).
Dall's porpoises can be found in waters that range in temperature from 3-20 degrees Celsius. They inhabit subartic to cold temperate waters only in the Pacific Ocean in the northern hemisphere.
WHALES, PORPOISES, AND DOLPHINS
Small to extremely large, hairless, fish-shaped mammals that are adapted strictly to an aquatic habitat; front limbs modified as flippers or fins, hind limbs absent, except for vestigial internal remnants; ...
Dolphins, Porpoises and Whales - Cetacea
Whales, dolphins and porpoises (Cetacea), also referred to as cetaceans, ...
Sea lions often "porpoise" or leap out of the water while swimming and re-entering headfirst. They also float at the surface with one or more flippers raised out of the water.
They at times follow the porpoise, when that animal is in pursuit of prey, and as the fishes rise from the deep water towards the surface, come in cunningly for their share, falling upon the frightened shoal, and seizing one or more, ...
Transient killer whales feed on marine mammals, such as harbour seals, California sea lions, Stellar sea lions, harbour porpoises, and Dall's porpoises, just to name a few.
A field guide to whales, porpoises, and seals from Cape Cod to Newfoundland (4th ed.) Smithsonian Press, Washington, D.C., 316pp.
Leatherwood, S., D.K. Caldwell, and H.E. Winn. 1976.
The vaquita, like other porpoises, differs from dolphins in several ways. Porpoises have a blunt beak, or rostrum, compared to dolphins' more tapered beaks. Porpoises' teeth are spade-shaped; dolphins' teeth are conical.
Neophocaena phocaenoides is sometimes called the Black Finless Porpoise because of the common misconception that its skin is black. In reality, the upper portions of N. phocaenoides are gray with touches of blue on the back and sides.
Dolphins are aquatic mammals that are closely related to whales and porpoises. There are almost forty species of dolphin in seventeen genera. They vary in size from 1.2 metres (4 ft) and 40 kilograms (88 lb) (Maui's Dolphin), up to 9.
Like several other species of dolphins and porpoises in South and Southeast Asia, Irrawaddy dolphins are disappearing at a rapid rate. However, there are some hopeful signs.
Of the 90 or so species of Cetaceans, about 80 are toothed whales, including 50 species of dolphins and porpoises.
This order is made up of whales, dolphins, and porpoises. Though they are mammals, they live their entire lives in the water. They have a streamlined shape with paddle shaped front flippers and flattened tail flukes.
Whales belong to the order cetacea, which includes whales, dolphins and porpoises. Whales are divided into two suborders: baleen and toothed whales.
Toothed whales, dolphins and porpoises, are a diverse group of over 70 species. They range in size from the Hector's dolphin and vaquita, both roughly 1.5 metres long when fully grown, to the mammoth 18 metre male sperm whale.
Despite its resemblance to pigs and other hoofed animals, the hippopotamus - among the largest of all the modern land mammals - bears a closer taxonomic relationship to whales, dolphins and porpoises. Its name means 'River Horse' in ancient Greek.
Although it has been observed feeding upon penguins, seals, porpoise and large baleen whales it's reputation for doing so is probably exaggerated.
The most common of these is the bottle-nosed dolphin (Tursiops truncatus), mistakenly called porpoises. Bottlenose dolphins have robust, powerful bodies that are blue-gray on top with lighter sides and bellies.
It resembles the common porpoise. The main body color is gray, darker above than below and also around the eyes and mouth. There is a dark stripe from the chin to the base of the flipper.
Whales, Dolphins and Porpoises. Dorling Kindersley, London.
Dalebout, M. L., van Helden, A. van Waerebeek, K, and Baker, C. S. 1998. Molecular genetic identification of Southern Hemisphere beaked whales. Molecular Ecology 7: 687-694.
Mead, J.
All Whales, just like Dolphins and Porpoises, are descendants of land-living mammals. It was about 50 million years ago that they first entered the waters on our planet.
It's In the Teeth: The toothed whale group, of which the dolphin is a member, also includes river dolphins, porpoises, white whales, sperm whales, orcas and beaked whales.
Whales, Dolphins and Porpoises - the Nature Company Guide
In the Company of Manatees by Barbara Sleeper and Jeff Foott. Explore the fascinating world of the manatee and learn what you can do to keep this gentle giant from disappearing forever.
WHALES, DOLPHINS, AND PORPOISES
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ORDER: Cetacea (dolphins, porpoises, and whales)
FAMILY: Delphinidae (dolphins, killer whales, pilot whales, and relatives)
GENUS/SPECIES: Tursiops truncates (common bottlenose dolphin); ...
Fastest Mammal (water)
Dall porpoises can swim up to 35 miles per hour.
Fastest Bird (sky)
Peregrine falcons can dive toward the earth at more than 200 miles per hour.
The great white shark hunts large fish, seal, porpoise, dolphin and whale, with the great white shark using an ambush technique to surprise their prey in order to secure their catch.
With animals such as whales, dolphins, or porpoises, the term describes a family or social group that stays together; roughly equivalent to a flock or school.
Poikilotherm
A "cold-blooded" animal. See "ectotherm." ...
Carnivore. Fish, squid, seals, sea lions, penguins, dolphins, porpoises and large whales like the blue whale.
Predators and Threats
Humans, along with pollution and contamination.
The Pacific White-sided Dolphin is also known as the "White-striped Dolphin" or "Hookfin Porpoise". It's cousin is the "Atlantic White-sided Dolphin", which is very similar but slightly larger.
Description ...
dolphins
this biggest family of the tooth-whales contains the most known whales at all, above all the big porpoise, that attained television-fame in shape of t...
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Yellowfins tend to school with fishes of the same size, including other species of tuna, and larger fish are often seen with porpoises, whales and whale sharks. Yellowfins eat other fish, crustaceans, and squid.
Although not a major food source for other animals, shad are eaten at sea by seals, sharks, blue-fin tuna, kingfish, and porpoises. Young shad in freshwater are eaten by bass, American eels and birds.
Discussion Tiger Sharks are voracious and omnivorous. The stomachs of captured specimens have been found to contain other sharks, fishes, porpoises, turtles, beef bones, dogs, tin cans, and garbage.
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Humboldt penguins have superb swimming skills, which rivals seals and porpoises.
They prefer shoulder-deep still or slow moving water and when in deep water they move along the bottom by a series of porpoise-like leaps. Alternatively, they may move with a series of high, prancing steps.
If you time it just right, you can get stuck waiting for ships to go through the locks. It makes birding from the causeway "allowable". During the needlefish run, it is also possible to see seals and porpoises.
Also swoops to pick up marine worms from mudflats, and takes shorebird chicks. Plunge-dives for small fish, from up to 10 m. Feeds over fishing nets. Scavenges over sea lions and sometimes feeds over porpoise pods.
 See also: Dolphin, Whale, Elephant, Crustacean, Squid
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