CreatureData

Sowerby's beaked whale

Mesoplodon bidens (Sowerby, 1804)

LCLeast Concernwhales and dolphins

Sowerby's beaked whale (Mesoplodon bidens) is a living member of the whales and dolphins, in the suborder Odontoceti and the family Hyperoodontidae. It is a giant marine mammal with a representative adult body mass of 3.4 tonnes.

Sowerby's beaked whale (Mesoplodon bidens)
Photo: Pj.vanderlinde · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Quick facts about the sowerby's beaked whale

It is an invertivore at the carnivore trophic level, with a cathemeral activity pattern. Gestation lasts 365.2 days, with reported values from 334.8 to 395.7 days, and a female has 1 young per litter; the IUCN lists it as Least Concern, not a threatened category.

Weight
2.35 t – 3.4 tsrc for Weight
Length
Not recorded
Lifespan
Not recorded
Diet
Invertivoresrc for Diet
Main food
Not recorded
Habitat
Not recorded
Gestation
335 days – 396 dayssrc for Gestation
Young per litter or clutch
1src for Young per litter or clutch
Active
Day and night (cathemeral)src for Active
Lifestyle
Marinesrc for Lifestyle
Conservation status
Least Concern (IUCN)src for Conservation status
Countries on record
Not recorded

Photos of the sowerby's beaked whale

Only freely licensed photos are shown. Each carries its creator and licence.

Sowerby's beaked whale (Mesoplodon bidens)
Thorburn, Archibald · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

Where does the sowerby's beaked whale live?

Not recorded

What is the sowerby's beaked whale?

Quoted from WikipediaCC BY-SA 4.0

Sowerby's beaked whale (Mesoplodon bidens), also known as the North Atlantic or North Sea beaked whale, is a species of toothed whale. It was the first mesoplodont whale to be described. James Sowerby, an English naturalist and artist, first described the species in 1804 from a skull obtained from a male that had stranded in the Moray Firth, Scotland, in 1800. He named it bidens, which derives from the two teeth present in the jaw, now known to be a very common feature among the genus.

From the Wikipedia article “Sowerby's beaked whale” (en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sowerby%27s_beaked_whale&oldid=1369900712), by Wikipedia contributors, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0). This block is kept separate from our own text.

Is the sowerby's beaked whale endangered?

The sowerby's beaked whale is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List: it is not currently at risk of extinction.

  1. LCLeast Concern
  2. NTNear Threatened
  3. VUVulnerable
  4. ENEndangered
  5. CRCritically Endangered
  6. EWExtinct in the Wild
  7. EXExtinct

Category via Wikidata (CC0). Find the full assessment on the IUCN Red List. See all Least Concern species. What the categories mean.

How is the sowerby's beaked whale classified?

  1. kingdomAnimalia
  2. phylumChordata
  3. classMammalia
  4. orderCetacea
  5. familyHyperoodontidae
  6. genusMesoplodon
  7. SpeciesMesoplodon bidens (Sowerby, 1804)

Synonyms Aodon dalei, Delphinorhynchus micropterus, Delphinorhynchus sowerbyi, Delphinus micropteron, Delphinus micropterus, Delphinus sowerbensis, Delphinus sowerbi, Delphinus sowerbyensis, Delphinus sowerbyi, Diodon sowerbaei, Diodon sowerbi, Diodon sowerbyi, Heterodon dalei, Mesodiodon sowerbyi, Mesoplodon sowerbensis, Mesoplodon sowerbensis, Mesoplodon sowerbiensis, Micropteron bidens, Micropteron sowerbiensis, Nodus dalei, Physeter bidens, Ziphius sowerbiensis

Other names and names in other languages (51)
  • North Atlantic beaked whaleEnglish
  • North Atlantic beaked whaleEnglish
  • North sea beaked whaleEnglish
  • Sowerby s beaked whaleEnglish
  • Sowerby's whaleEnglish
  • Sowerby’s beaked whaleEnglish
  • Sowerby’s beaked whaleEnglish
  • Sowerby’s beaked whaleEnglish
  • Sowerbys beaked whale, beaked whaleEnglish
  • Sowerby’s North sea beaked whaleEnglish
  • Sowerby’s North sea beaked whaleEnglish
  • Sowerby’s whaleEnglish
  • Sowerby’s whaleEnglish
  • vaca marina de sowerbyAsturian
  • Morfil Gylfinog SowerbyWelsh
  • Morfilod Gylfinog SowerbyWelsh
  • NæbhvalDanish
  • almindelig næbhvalDanish
  • FlosserGerman
  • Sowerby-ZweizahnwalGerman
  • Sowerbys WalGerman
  • ZweizahnwalGerman
  • Δίδοντο μεσόπλοδονGreek
  • zifio de SowerbySpanish
  • Ballena de Pico de SowerbySpanish
  • ballenato de hoccico de SowerbySpanish
  • NehvalurFaroese
  • dauphin de DaleFrench
  • baleine à bec de SowerbyFrench
  • dauphin de HâvreFrench
  • mesoplodon de SowerbyFrench
  • Mésoplodon de SowerbyFrench
  • svinhvalurIcelandic
  • NorðursnjáldriIcelandic
  • mesoplodonte di SowerbyItalian
  • atlantinis dvidantisLithuanian
  • spisshvalNorwegian Bokmål
  • nordspisshvalNorwegian Bokmål
  • spitsdolfijnDutch
  • gewone spitssnuitdolfijnDutch
  • spisskvalNorwegian Nynorsk
  • nordspisskvalNorwegian Nynorsk
  • spidshvalenNorwegian
  • remnezub soverbiRussian
  • ремнезуб атлантическийRussian
  • atlanticheski remhezubRussian
  • sowerbyjev dvozobSlovenian
  • Sowerbijev dvozobi kitSlovenian
  • Sowerbys näbbvalSwedish
  • кит СовербиUkrainian
  • Атлантичний ремнезубUkrainian

Catalogue of LifeWikipediaTAXREFWikidataWoRMSIUCN Red List

Relatives of the sowerby's beaked whale

Other species in the same genus Mesoplodon.

CompareSowerby's beaked whale vs Blainville's beaked whaleSowerby's beaked whale vs Spade-toothed whaleSowerby's beaked whale vs Gervais's beaked whaleSowerby's beaked whale vs Ginkgo-toothed beaked whale

Common questions

Each answer is written from the sourced facts on this page, and only where they hold the answer.

What kind of animal is Sowerby's beaked whale?

It is a mammal in the whales and dolphins group, belonging to the suborder Odontoceti and the family Hyperoodontidae.

How heavy is Sowerby's beaked whale?

Its representative adult body mass is 3.4 tonnes, which places it in the giant size class (adult body mass over 250 kg).

What does Sowerby's beaked whale eat?

It is an invertivore, and its trophic level is carnivore.

Is Sowerby's beaked whale endangered?

No. The IUCN Red List classifies it as Least Concern (LC) in its global assessment, which is not a threatened category.

How long is the gestation period of Sowerby's beaked whale?

Gestation lasts 365.2 days (1 year), with reported values from 334.8 to 395.7 days.

How many young does Sowerby's beaked whale have?

It has 1 young per litter.

What are other names for Sowerby's beaked whale?

Other English names include Sowerby's whale and North sea beaked whale.

Sources and how to cite this page

Data as of 2026-11-11. How this page is put together.

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APA

CreatureData. (2026). Sowerby's beaked whale (Mesoplodon bidens). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/sowerbys-beaked-whale

MLA

“Sowerby's beaked whale (Mesoplodon bidens).” CreatureData, 2026, https://creaturedata.com/animals/sowerbys-beaked-whale.

BibTeX
@misc{sowerbys_beaked_whale_2026,
  title = {Sowerby's beaked whale (Mesoplodon bidens)},
  author = {{CreatureData}},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/sowerbys-beaked-whale},
  note = {Data as of 2026-11-11}
}