{"id":116274,"date":"2025-09-03T08:23:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-03T08:23:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/116274\/"},"modified":"2025-09-03T08:23:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-03T08:23:10","slug":"very-rare-pygmy-sperm-whale-found-dead-on-devon-beach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/116274\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Very rare’ pygmy sperm whale found dead on Devon beach"},"content":{"rendered":"

Zhara SimpsonBBC News, South West<\/p>\n

\"SarahSarah Porretta<\/p>\n

Devon Wildlife Trust said the rare pygmy sperm whale was found dead at Bigbury <\/p>\n

A “very rare” species of whale has been found dead on a beach, a wildlife trust has said.<\/p>\n

Devon Wildlife Trust (DWT) said the pygmy sperm whale, which was about 11ft-13ft (3.5m-4m) long, was found dead at Bigbury on Sea on Monday.<\/p>\n

The trust said it was rarely seen alive in UK waters and there was “only a handful” of strandings since records by the Cetacean Strandings Investigation Programme (CSIP) started in the 1990s.<\/p>\n

Tom Miller, British Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDMLR) mammal medic, said a local landowner and farmer helped lift the animal from the rocks with a tractor, on to a trailer and up to a secure location, where it would be collected by CSIP on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

The CSIP, based at Zoological Society of London, hoped to carry out an autopsy to find the cause of death of the “magnificent creature”, the trust said.<\/p>\n

“As their name suggests, pygmy sperm whales are much smaller than true sperm whales, only reaching a maximum size of around four metres. <\/p>\n

“They have only been recognized as a species since 1966.<\/p>\n

“They are so rare, very little is known about them, but it is thought that they eat a variety of fish, octopus, crab and shrimp.”<\/p>\n

\"SarahSarah<\/p>\n

Marine engagement officer Coral Smith said it was incredibly sad to see<\/p>\n

It added: “They are usually found in warm, deep water but have been spotted in all temperate subtropical and tropical seas.”<\/p>\n

Marine engagement officer Coral Smith said: “This is a very rare stranding indeed, with only a handful occurring in UK waters since CSIP began recording. <\/p>\n

“Although incredibly sad to see such a magnificent and rare mammal, this incident highlighted the brilliant partnership working between BDMLR and Devon Wildlife Trust volunteers.<\/p>\n

“It shows the huge value that local people in local communities can play in marine citizen science and conservation.”<\/p>\n

\"SarahSarah<\/p>\n

Sarah and her son Osain were surfing at Bigbury when they heard about the whale<\/p>\n

Sarah and her 11-year-old son Osian, from Dorset, were surfing at Bigbury when they were told about the whale stranding.<\/p>\n

“It was kind of wedged in some rock pools,” she said.<\/p>\n

“It was quite a calm atmosphere. The farmers turned up in their wellies and really calmly worked out how to get the whale out without any fuss.<\/p>\n

“I think everybody was sad to see it but also fascinated to see this amazing creature… you would rather see them swimming free. <\/p>\n

Osian said: “It was sad to see a dead whale but i think it was also interesting.”<\/p>\n

The farmer told them the whale weighed about 700kg which was about the size of a bull.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Zhara SimpsonBBC News, South West Sarah Porretta Devon Wildlife Trust said the rare pygmy sperm whale was found…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":116275,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[49,48,66,323],"class_list":{"0":"post-116274","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-science","11":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116274","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116274"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116274\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/116275"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116274"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116274"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}