Bryde's whale: Where It Lives, Map & Facts

Where the Bryde's whale lives – recorded in 10 countries, with quick facts from Wikidata and an introduction from Wikipedia.

Scientific name	Balaenoptera brydei
Group	Whales & dolphins
Found in	10 countries
Continents	Africa, Europe, North America, Oceania, South America
Class	Mammal
Order	Artiodactyla
Family	Balaenopteridae

Where does the Bryde's whale live?

Open-licence (CC0 / CC BY) wild records published on GBIF place the Bryde's whale in 10 countries and territories across Africa, Europe, North America, Oceania and South America. Wikidata gives its range as: Aurora do Pará.

Countries with at least a handful of records (a minimum share of the species’ records, to leave out vagrants and escapes). Records with coordinates only; captive and fossil records excluded.

What kind of animal is the Bryde's whale?

The Bryde's whale (Balaenoptera brydei) is a mammal in the order Artiodactyla and the family Balaenopteridae, genus Balaenoptera. (Taxonomy from Wikidata.)

About the Bryde's whale

Bryde's whale ( BRUU-dəz), or the Bryde's whale complex, putatively comprises three species of rorqual and possibly four. The "complex" means the number and classification remain unclear because of a lack of definitive information and research. The common Bryde's whale (Balaenoptera brydei, Olsen, 1913) is a larger form that occurs worldwide in warm temperate and tropical waters, and the Sittang or Eden's whale (Balaenoptera edeni, Anderson, 1879) is a smaller form that may be restricted to the Indo-Pacific. Also, a smaller, coastal form of B. brydei is found off southern Africa, and perhaps another form in the Indo-Pacific differs in skull morphology, tentatively referred to as the Indo-Pacific Bryde's whale. The recently described Omura's whale (B. omurai, Wada et al. 2003), was formerly thought to be a pygmy form of Bryde's, but is now recognized as a distinct species. Rice's whale (B. ricei), which makes its home solely in the Gulf of Mexico, was once considered a distinct population of Bryde's whale, but in 2021 it was described as a separate species.

Text in “About” is quoted from the Wikipedia article Bryde's whale (revision 1380070729), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: lead section excerpted verbatim, formatting removed. Quick facts, taxonomy and status: Wikidata Q221056 (CC0). Countries and pin: GBIF.org occurrence records (CC0 / CC BY 4.0).