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Harbor Porpoise — printable fact sheet
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Harbor Porpoise
Phocoena phocoena
Phocoena phocoena is small, blunt-headed and undemonstrative - it has no beak, a low triangular fin, and it rarely leaps or bow-rides, so it is easily missed even in busy coastal water. Its most remarkable feature is acoustic. Harbour porpoises echolocate exclusively with narrow…
Did you know?
- Despite their name, harbor porpoises are often found far from actual harbors and can even occur in brackish or freshwater rivers.
- Harbour porpoise clicks are so stereotyped that automated acoustic loggers can survey populations without ever seeing an animal. Gillnet bycatch is the single largest cause of death, and it drove the Baltic Sea population to a few hundred individuals. Their teeth are spade-shaped, not conical like a dolphin's, which is one of the definitive features separating porpoises from dolphins.
What I learned
Draw the harbor porpoise
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