Kogia breviceps
(de Blainville, 1838)
Pygmy Sperm Whale
Distribution :
Worldwide: temperate to tropical waters.
Image courtesy of the ASM Mammal Images Library · MIL ID: 1137
Taxonomy
| Subclass | : Theria |
| Infraclass | : Placentalia |
| Magnorder | : Boreoeutheria |
| Superorder | : Laurasiatheria |
| Order | : Artiodactyla |
| Suborder | : Cetacea |
| Infraorder | : Odontoceti |
| Superfamily | : Physeteroidea |
| Family | : Kogiidae |
| Subfamily | : Kogiinae |
| Genus | : Kogia |
Species status
Authority citation
Blainville, H.-M.D. de. 1838. Sur les Cachalots. Annales Françaises et Étrangères d'Anatomie et de Physiologie 2:335-337.
Authority publication link
Original name as described
physeter breviceps
Other common names
Lesser Cachalot · Lesser Sperm Whale · Short-headed Sperm Whale
Type material
MNHN-ZM-MO-1927-3
Type kind
holotype
Type locality
South Africa, Western Cape Province, "rapportée des mers du cap de Bonne-Espérance" (= Cape of Good Hope).
Biogeographic realm
Marine
Country distribution
American Samoa · Angola · Anguilla · Antigua and Barbuda · Argentina · Aruba · Australia · Azores · Bahamas · Bangladesh · Barbados · Belgium · Belize · Benin · Bermuda · Bonaire · Brazil · British Virgin Islands · Brunei · Cambodia · Cameroon · Canada · Cape Verde · Cayman Islands · Chile · China · Cocos Islands · Colombia · Comoros · Cook Islands · Costa Rica · Cote d'Ivoire · Cuba · Curaçao · Democratic Republic of the Congo · Denmark · Djibouti · Dominica · Dominican Republic · East Timor · Ecuador · El Salvador · Equatorial Guinea · Fiji · France · French Guiana · French Polynesia · Gabon · Gambia · Germany · Ghana · Grenada · Guadeloupe · Guam · Guatemala · Guinea · Guinea-Bissau · Guyana · Haiti · Honduras · India · Indonesia · Iran · Ireland · Jamaica · Japan · Kenya · Kiribati · Liberia · Madagascar · Malaysia · Maldives · Marshall Islands · Martinique · Mauritania · Mauritius · Mayotte · Mexico · Micronesia · Montserrat · Morocco · Mozambique · Myanmar · Namibia · Nauru · Netherlands · New Caledonia · New Zealand · Nicaragua · Nigeria · Niue · Norfolk Island · North Korea · Northern Marianas · Oman · Pakistan · Palau · Panama · Papua New Guinea · Peru · Philippines · Pitcairn · Portugal · Puerto Rico · Republic of the Congo · Réunion · Saba · Saint Barthélemy · Saint Helena · Saint Kitts and Nevis · Saint Lucia · Saint Vincent and the Grenadines · Samoa · Senegal · Seychelles · Sierra Leone · Singapore · Sint Eustatius · Sint Maarten · Solomon Islands · Somalia · South Korea · South Sudan · Spain · Sri Lanka · Suriname · São Tomé and Príncipe · Taiwan · Tanzania · Thailand · Togo · Tokelau · Tonga · Trinidad and Tobago · Turks and Caicos Islands · Tuvalu · United Arab Emirates · United Kingdom · United States · United States Virgin Islands · Uruguay · Vanuatu · Venezuela · Vietnam · Wallis and Futuna · Yemen · Eritrea? · Russia?
Subregion distribution
USA(CA, FL, GA, HI, AL?, CT?, DC?, DE?, LA?, MA?, MD?, MI?, NC?, NJ?, NY?, OR?, RI?, SC?, TX?, VA?, WA?)
Distribution references
Carretta, J.V., Oleson, E.M., Forney, K.A., Muto, M.M., Weller, D.W., Lang, A.R., Baker, J., Hanson, B., Orr, A.J., Barlow, J., Moore, J.E. and Brownell, R.L., Jr. 2021. U.S. Pacific marine mammal stock assessments: 2020. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 389 pp. doi:10.25923/r00a-m485
Taxonomy notes
moved from Physeteridae to Kogiidae
Taxonomy notes citation
May-Collado, L. and Agnarsson, I. 2006. Cytochrome b and Bayesian inference of whale phylogeny. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 38(2):344-354. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2005.09.019 · McGowen, M.R., Tsagkogeorga, G., Álvarez-Carretero, S., Reis, M. dos, Struebig, M., Deaville, R., Jepson, P.D., Jarman, S., Polanowski, A., Morin, P.A. and Rossiter, S.J. 2020. Phylogenomic resolution of the cetacean tree of life using target sequence capture. Systematic Biology 69(3):479-501. doi:10.1093/sysbio/syz068 · Maggioni, D., Pupillo, G., Rota, A., Ramazzotti, F., Martín, V., Poli, F. F., ... & Valsecchi, E. (2026). Eastern North Atlantic Strandings Validate Genetic Patterns in Pygmy and Dwarf Sperm Whales (Kogiidae). Marine Mammal Science, 42(3), e70230. https://doi.org/10.1111/mms.70230Digital
IUCN Red List status
Least Concern
Species Permalink
Country distribution map
The map below provides a general overview. Most species inhabit only specific regions within countries. Known distribution is shown in green and predicted distribution is in yellow.Hover over the highlighted regions to see the country name.
Names and synonyms
Present and past (if available) associated names to the species. Click on a name to view its details.
Total: 14 names and synonyms.
4 more names and synonyms available — use the desktop version to see them all.
Show 4 more names and synonyms
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