The colour-changing Cuvier’s beaked whale (Ziphius cavirostris)
I’ve always had a soft spot for Cuvier’s beaked whales, which their recent dive records only deepened. However, during the creating of their illustrations, I learned so much more about them. I thought I was familiar with their markings, and originally I had meant to paint just two: an adult male and female. Until my client corrected me that I had, in fact, painted a subadult and a young adult male, instead of the truly mature old male he’d had envisioned. And so two illustrations became four, and in the end I think they work together very nicely to show the “Cuvier gradient”. I had no idea adult females were so light-backed - I had always assumed these to be males. And the ghostly old males were an especially big surprise. Apparently this is a totally normal and common colour pattern for mature males, which is simply not often represented in illustrations of the species. Really cool to learn more about this species, so I just had to make a proper poster out of it. Hopefully you’ll find it interesting too!
- superpoststarfish liked this
- th3rizzl3r reblogged this from namu-the-orca
- th3rizzl3r liked this
- colubridkid liked this
- tehkusogaki reblogged this from namu-the-orca
- tehkusogaki liked this
- damnicantcontroltheweather liked this
- greateggspainterparty liked this
- shrimp-bird reblogged this from namu-the-orca
- cherry-futch liked this
- cavernariog reblogged this from j27blackberry
- cavernario-galindo liked this
- phyghyver liked this
- antfed-blog liked this
- fire-rose liked this
- saint-nevermore reblogged this from namu-the-orca
- eldriwolf liked this
- pegxcarter liked this
- plantoniic reblogged this from j27blackberry
- plantoniic liked this
- crazyjackworld reblogged this from j27blackberry
- crazyjackworld liked this
- wisestarfishtale liked this
- ptolemaeic liked this
- 000p-i-p liked this
- saint-nevermore liked this
- bobv48-blog liked this
- tundragravedigger liked this
- rosebella2016 liked this
- zoccket reblogged this from alphynix
- zoccket liked this
- sammypeaches liked this
- sirrealdude liked this
- cathartesburruvianus liked this
- vojkan55 liked this
- codenamepip liked this
- cmipalaeo reblogged this from alphynix
- rat-a-tit liked this
- satellite-of-saturn reblogged this from namu-the-orca
- silly-jellyghoty liked this
- garden-eel-draws reblogged this from hapalopus
- brainjuicezz liked this
- theunpopulargoat reblogged this from namu-the-orca
- ornithurae reblogged this from namu-the-orca
- bickazer liked this
- devourer-of-acetone reblogged this from rozziebotspams
- namu-the-orca posted this
- Show more notes