#ziphiidae
Hyperoodon ampullatus
What strange creatures. I couldn’t find any photographs of a baby bottlenose whale, so this is my artist interpretation. Genuinely want to see an actual photograph of a newly-born bottlenose whale tho
What a wonderful piece, I love those colours. Gives a real mystical feel to it.. this should be in a book or something ♥ As for the baby bottlenose whale - there are pictures!
This is what a fresh newborn looks like (photos © Vicki Thayes)
Note that there’s some discoloration due to post-mortem darkening. Here’s a cute little live baby, swimming with mom! You can really see how much more starkly marked they are than the adults, especially with their cute creamy melons (photo © Sascha Hooker)
When they get a bit older they turn to the ‘chubby baby’ phase; the neonate twofold colour pattern fades in favour of a more adult-looking plain brownish grey (photo © Gudmann on Flickr)
Note though that while they are still babies, they are already 5 metres (16.5 ft) long and weigh some two thousand kilos (4400 pounds). These guys are HUGE.