Spade Toothed Beaked Whale

About two years ago several whales washed up on a New Zealand beach, which at the time were tho

ught to be a Gray beaked whales, which commonly end up stranded on the shoreline. Researchers took photos of the dead animals, tissue samples, then buried them. Two years later, after DNA analysis, biologists have determined that the whales were in fact the long sought-after spade-toothed beaked variety. This is the first time that the elusive animal has been seen as a whole animal. First discovered in 1872 when a jaw was found on a Pacific Island, the whale has never been seen, but from two partial skulls, one found in New Zealand in 1950 and the other on a Chilean island in 1986. Why is the spade-toothed whale so rare? No one really knows. They don't know if the two that washed up on a New Zealand beach in 2010 were the last of their kind, or if the whales live in very deep waters and rarely ever wash up on shore when they die. The latter is more likely. Just a little science info that I recently learned and wanted to share with you. Hopefully, we haven't seen another species die out.