MARINE MAMMALS

Common Name: Gangetic Dolphin

Order: Cetacea         Family: PLATANISTIDAE

Scientific Name: Platanista gangetica

Bangla Name: Shishu / Shushuk

The only truly aquatic freshwater mammal of Bangladesh. Sooty black to jet black, fusiform animal with a prolonged rostrum, like a gharial, having 27 to 32 homodont teeth on each side of each jaw. Indistinct neck, rudimentary dorsal fin, well developed pectoral flippers; lengthened horizontal tail-flukes; eyes small and rudimentary. The blowhole is a longitudinal slit. Total length is 230-260 cm with females usually being larger than the males

Gangetic dolphin was very common all over the country both in major rivers, their tributaries and distributaries. It is still be easily sighted in the Padma, Jamuna and Meghna river systems, though sightings are reducing day by day. By the mid seventies it completely vanished from the hilly river systems in Chittagong and the Hill Tracts district due to the construction of Kaptai Dam Hydroelectric project. During monsoon it reaches the wetlands of the country and take refuge in the larger rivers during the lean period. Population is fast declining from the Padma river systems of Bangladesh due, to the construction of a barrage (Farakka) in the West Bengal part of the river.

Common Name: Spinner / Spotted dolphin

Order: Cetacea         Family: DELPHINIDAE

Scientific Name: Stenella longirostris

Bangla Name: Tilokito Dolfin

A salt water dolphin with a long beak; erect triangular dorsal fin at the mid-body; greyish black in colour with paler underside; measuring about two meters. Present in small numbers in the Bay of Bengal and in the mouths of the rivers passing through the Sunderbans.

Common Name: Molonheaded whale/ Broadbeaked dolphin

Order: Cetacea         Family: DELPHINIDAE

Scientific Name: Peponocephala electra

Bangla Name: Tarmuzmatha dolfin

Overall black with pale underparts, darker fins and an anchor shaped grey patch on the throat. The head is blunt with a short rather inconspicous beak, the mouthline is quite long and nearly straight. The dorsal fin is behind mid body, slightly falcate, with rounded tip. It has long pointed flippers. There are 15 or more tooth on each side of each jaw. Total length of the body is 2.5 m. It is a rather common dolphin of the Bay of Bengal in the Bangladesh part and is often found in the estuarine rivers of the coastal part of Bangladesh.

Common Name: Irrawaddy dolphin

Order: Cetacea         Family: DELPHINIDAE

Scientific Name: Orcella brevirostris

Bangla Name: Susum mach

Another short-beaked, small dolphin with a charactetistic globose head and blackish in colour. The dorsal fin is at midbody. It has 16 and 13 teeth respectively an each side of upper and lower jaws with the teeth confined to the anterior half, of the rostrum; length about two metres.

Possibly the commonest of marine mammals found in good numbers in the mouth of the River Naaf and St. Martins Channel beyond Teknaf penisula of Chittagong District, rivers of the Sunderbans mangrove forest, more often towards the Bay of Bengal and in the Bay proper. Stranded specimens of this and the preceding species are often found along the coast, some live specimens even enter the coastal rivers and journey upstream and die.

Common Name: Short-finned pilot whale

Order: Cetacea         Family: DELPHINIDAE

Scientific Name: Globicephala macrorhynchus

Bangla Name: Pilot Timi

Possibly the longest toothed whale of Bangladesh water limits. It is black in colour with thick and bulbous head and robust fore-body. The Dorsal fin is towards the head region, much ahead of the mid-body; falcate and 13 cm in height; low in profile, broad-based and rounded tip, opposed to pointed lip of melonheaded whale. It has a long flipper, sickle-shaped smoothly back - curved along leading edge. Length about 5 m, tail fluke 1 m 30 cm. Short-finned pilot whale is occasionally found in the Sunderbans estuary and the Bay of Bengal.

Common Name: Finless Little Indian porpoise

Order: Cetacea         Family: PHOCOENIDAE

Scientific Name: Neophocaena phocaenoides

Bangla Name: Shushum mach

Smallest of our cetaceans, measuring hardly 1. 5 m and the only species having no dorsal fin.It is a uniformly black animal, with rounded snout, small spade like teeth having flat crowns and the teeth occupies the greater part of the rostrum.