Scientific
name: Eubalaena australis
Common local name: ballena franca austral
Right whales (genus Eubalaena) belong to the Mysticeti
group of cetaceans with baleen plates. The upper jaw is bow-shaped and
the head is up to one-quarter of the body length. There exist two other
species of right whales; the northern right whale (Eubalaena
glacialis)
and the North Pacific right whale (Eubalaena japonica) both
living in the northern hemisphere.
They were named by whalers who considered them the "right" whales to
hunt, since they are rich in blubber, easy to catch because they are
relatively slow and they float after being killed.
Southern right whale females are about 16,5m, males are about 15,2m. As
with all baleen whales, females are slightly larger than males.
Right whales have callosities (a series of horny growths) around their
blowhole, on the chin, above the eyes, on the lower lip and on the
rostrum (the beak-like upper jaw). These callosities are inhabited by
small crustaceans: cyamids or ‘whale-lice’.
The cyamids colonize the callosities of newborn calves through the
mothers. When adult, the patterns formed on the whale’s rostrum are
unique and constant and can therefore be used for individual recognition
by photo-identification.