Kōrero: Whales

George Shepherd

George Shepherd

George Shepherd was for 20 years the full-time curator of Wanganui Museum. In 1933 he read in the Hawera Star a description of a whale washed up near Ōhawe on the south Taranaki coast. Shepherd visited the site, collected the skeleton, and became convinced that it was a new species of whale. The director of the Dominion Museum, W. R. B. Oliver, confirmed his conjecture and named the species after Shepherd, pictured here with the skeleton. The Shepherd’s beaked whale remains very rare and only one live specimen has ever been seen – near Nelson in 1994.

Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi

Whanganui Regional Museum

Permission of the Whanganui Regional Museum must be obtained before any re-use of this image.

Ngā whakaahua me ngā rauemi katoa o tēnei kōrero

Te tuhi tohutoro mō tēnei whārangi:

Gerard Hutching, 'Whales - Beaked whales', Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, http://www.TeAra.govt.nz/mi/photograph/7102/george-shepherd (accessed 29 March 2024)

He kōrero nā Gerard Hutching, i tāngia i te 12 Jun 2006