Hectori's common name is Hector Dolphin. Hector Dolphin is a small blackish, grayish dolphin with a white belly and a white strip just below its fin.  Hector Dolphin is said to be so small you can fit one inside your bathtub.  They are about 1.4 meters long and weigh about 45 kilograms; I think that’s what makes them look so cute.  They are found to be playful so people like to watch them.  What makes them different is that their noses slope down instead of sticking out. Hector Dolphin is known to be the rarest of all species.

 

There are about 110 Hector Dolphin in the world.  They only live for about 20 years in the wild and they swim in groups.  You rarely see one alone, and the group sizes go for 2 to 12 and they are really social around boats.  In fact, most deaths and accidents are from boats and fishing nets.  Maybe because they swim so close to shore.   Hector Dolphin's live only on the coastal waters of New Zealand, which is right next to Australia.

 

 The weird thing about Hector Dolphin is that the females are larger than the males, which makes people get the two mixed up.  Hector Dolphin mostly eat at night and use sonar vibrations to see in the dark, they mostly eat crab, flounder, cod, crab, and squid.  And they eat toward the bottom of the ocean floor.  Some actually die from eating plastic bags from pollution.  The Hector Dolphin was named after Sir. James Hector, a Scottish scientist.

 

Hector Dolphin's reproduce when they are about 8 years old in late spring, it takes about one year for a baby to be born.  They are 24-30 inches long at birth.  And the baby’s drinks the mother’s milk for only a year so they learn how to hunt, and they stay with their mom for 3 years.  However, Hector Dolphin's have a low potential for population growth.  In 1999 Hector Dolphin was classified as threatened and it is illegal to harm or kill them, they are now endangered cause the mother only breed every 2 to 4 years.

 

Clearly Hector Dolphin is a beautifully and endangered species so we should do our best to keep them on earth a little longer by not polluting and trying not to hit them with are boats. But Hector Dolphin is a beautiful mammal that is super small, and they are the rarest species in the world. Also is name after Sir. James Hector.  And all this makes them more unique. 

 

 

Author: Morgan H

Date Published: 2011/2

 

Sources:

www.dolphins-worlds.com/Hectors_Dolphin.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hector’s_dolphin

www.animalcorner.co.uk/mariene/dolphins_hectors.html

 

Picture: http://www.celsias.co.nz/article/impact-nz-fisheries-unknown/