
Tue PIGMY SPERM WHALE (KOGIA BREVICEPS, 
Biainvitte) on SOUTH AUSTRALIAN COASTS 
By HERBERT M, HALE, Direcror, Sovrn Ausrrauian Museum. 
Plates xiv—xviii and Text Fig. 1-17, 
Tr is now possible to list three localities at which the Pigmy, or Short-headed, 
Sperm Whale (Kogia breviceps) has been taken in South Australia, 
The first record of the species on the coast of this State is furnished by 
Wood Jones (1925, p, 279) who notes a lower jaw seenred at Eneounter Bay 
about 1885. 
The Pigmy Sperm Whale was not noticed again m South Australia until 
April 25, 1987, when a mature female was stranded alive at Port Victoria, in 
Spencer Gulf, At the same time a smaller example, which was seen to be 
accompanying the adult prior to her misfortune, was observed swimming close 
inshore, and later on the same date this individual—which proved to be a young 
female—also was cast up on to the beach, Thanks to the efforts of Mr. H. B.A. 
Edwardes, of Port Victoria, both specimens were secured, carried over some clits 
and transported to the South Australian Museum, where measurements were made 
and casts and skeletons prepared. The calf was evidently still suckling at the time, 
for the mammary glands were active in the mother; the uterns of the last-named 
contained a foetus about 20 em, in length, A brief record of this occurrence was 
made by the writer (1939, p. 7) and some furtlier details of the three specimens 
are given herein. 
Thirdly, in August, 1944, Miss N, M, Follett furnished a description and a 
drawing of a ‘‘large fish 7 to 8 feet in length’? whieb had come ashore in the 
vicinity of Sleaford Bay, near Port Lincoln. Miss Follett’s excellent account 
showed it to be a Kogia. Recovery of this material proved even more difficult 
than in the case of the Port Victoria examples and necessitated a journey of 
sixteen miles over a rough track and then the crossing of a mile or so of high 
sandhills. Finally, a month after the stranding, the skull and some other bones 
were collected for the Museum. 
Tt should be noted that the plaster casts of the Port Victoria female and calf 
now exhibited in the South Australian Museum are of one side only and are 
not necessarily accurate in regard to measurements, as the contour does not oeeur 
along a truly sagittal section, Furthermore, the peetoral limbs were removed 
