Blainville's Beaked Whale (CollectA – Sea Life Collection)

[brontodocus]

The Ziphiidae or Beaked Whales are among the least known of all cetaceans even though they make up about a quarter of all extant whale species. No wonder they are also underrepresented among animal toy figures, the only previous exceptions I'm aware of are Baird's Beaked Whale, Berardius bairdii, by Kaiyodo (Animatales Series 7), Hubbs' Beaked Whale, Mesoplodon carlhubbsi, by Play Visions, and the Strap-toothed Whale, Mesoplodon layardii, by Lontic / Nayab. This is a walk-around of the CollectA Sea Life Blainville's Beaked Whale, Mesoplodon densirostris (Blainville, 1817); item No. 88761, new for 2016. The figure is a male, total length is 168 mm so the scale is between approx. 1:24 and 1:28. "Freddie the Free Diver" by Safari Ltd is approx. 1:22.5 - 1.24 scale man from Safari Ltd "People in Motion" Toob is approx. 1:23 - 1:27 scale. Blainville's Beaked Whale has the widest known geographical distribution within its genus, occurring in the Atlantic as well as the Pacific and Indian Ocean and is known to dive up to 1,200 m deep to catch squid. The skin is often covered with scars from cookiecutter sharks (Isistius sp.) and males are usually covered with scratches from intraspecific combat. Little is known about the global population and whether they are endangered or not. Since the data is insufficient to determine if the species is really threatened and to which extent, IUCN classifies Blainville's Beaked Whale as "Data Deficient".














Edit 2017-02-04: Fixed broken image urls.

[AcroSauroTaurus]

Love this figure, I definitely need it! Now If only CollectA would make my favorite beaked whale, the Strap-toothed... I know theres the Lontic, but a CollectA one would be far superior.

[Jetoar]

Really wonderful sculpture, beaked whales are really strange even in the toy market  .

[brontodocus]

The peculiar Blainville's Beaked Whale can be seen again!

[CetaceanFan]

Thank you! brontodocus!