Mammals
AUSTRALASIAN Temperate Ocean


Class Mammalia


Order Cetacea: Whales and Dolphins


Family Delphinidae

There are some 40 species in this family, from the small Hector's Dolphin to the huge Orca.



Dolphins are often acrobatic, leaping out of the water. One of the most spectacular is a temperate Australasian species called the Dusky Dolphin.

(Monkey Mia)
(Monkey Mia)

Tursiops aduncus, 'Inshore Bottlenose Dolphin', 'Indo-Pacific Bottlenose Dolphin'. This is the slimmer and more tropical of the two main Bottlenose Dolphin species. In Australia, it is more common in the tropics, but it does appear along the coast down to Shark Bay on the west coast, and extends to the south east along the east coast.  

(New Zealand)

Cephalorhynchus hectori, 'Hector's Dolphin'. The smallest dolphin species in the world. Endemic to bays around the New Zealand coast.

(Kaikoura, New Zealand)

Lagenorhynchus obscurus'Dusky Dolphin'.

(Kaikoura, New Zealand)

Physeter macrocephalus'Sperm Whale'.

Order Carnivora


Pinnipeds


Family Otariidae: the 'Eared Seals', including sea lions and fur seals

(Rottnest Island, Australia)

New Zealand Fur Seals often expose their flippers to the sun to warm up.

(Rottnest Island)

Arctocephalus forsteri, 'New Zealand Fur Sea'.  Found around coast of New Zealand and southern Australia.

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