The Spinner dolphin is the most acrobatic and abundant of all cetaceans in Sri Lankan waters. They are small, slender dolphins with a long, slim beak. The head is very slim at the apex of the melon. The surface pattern is a three-tone arrangement: dark grey, creamy white or pink on the belly. Some may…

They are generally large, robust and bulky, particularly in comparison with the Indian bottlenose dolphin. It has a distinct stubby beak, set off from the melon by a crease. This species is alos darker than the Indian Ocean bottlenose dolphin, having a more bulky melon and proportionately shorter, thicker rostrum. The body color is complex…

Risso’s dolphin is the largest ‘true’ dolphin without a distinct beak. It has a robust body and a large blunt head. A concave groove runs down the front of the melon from the blowhole to the mouth, which is long and turns upwards towards the eye. As calves Risso’s dolphins are a uniformed light grey…

The Sperm whale is the largest of all toothed whales (odontocetes), the Sperm whale gets its name from its spermaceti organ, a very large, oil filled chamber that occupies most of the animal’s enormous head. The body is relatively short and robust, with wrinkled surface appearance aft of the head. The head is very large,…

Named after a Norwegian whaler, Bryde’s (pronounced as ‘broodess’) whale has a slender, streamlined body. The head is V-shaped and longitudinally ridged from the tip of the rostrum to the double blowholes and the central ridge is flanked by two additional ridges, 1-2 cm thick, on either side. A set of 40-70 throat pleats run…

Blue whales are the largest animals ever known to have lived on Earth. Its body is very long, tapered and streamlined and can grow up to 100 feet (30 meters) long and upwards of 200 tons (181 metric tons). The head is broad, long and almost U-shaped, accounting for up to a quarter of the…