Wow I think this is the first photo I've seen of this animal on here! Thank you for this. It's always super exciting to see a new Cetacean species for me! I visited Harderwijk in July of 2010, so about a year too early. And yes unfortunate situation for that animal.
@Giant Eland Is the same for me, Cetaceans are my favourite animals, and any new species I can see is a very special moment. I was very lucky to see this dolphin, I spent a lot of time looking at him.
Let me think, I have seen:
Fin Whale
Gray Whale (only pictures from far away)
Orca
Beluga
Short-finned Pilot Whale
Long-finned Pilot Whale
Harbour Porpoise
Bottlenose Dolphin
Short-beaked Common Dolphin (but no pictures)
White-beaked Dolphin
Amazon River Dolphin
And a Bottlenose-Common Dolphin hybrid.
Supposedly, I also have seen some Stripped Dolphins during a whale watching trip, but they were so far away that I was unable to identify them, so don´t count for me XD
Ah you've got 2 species I've never seen! (White-beaked of course and Long-finned Pilot Whale).
I've made a special effort to see as many different species as possible- including going whale/dolphin watching a total of 17 times in 5 different countries and 5 different US states- including 8 years in a row from 2008-2015!
Here's my list: W indicates seen in wild only, W/C indicates seen both in wild and captivity.
1.) (Balaenoptera acutorostrata) northern minke whale- W
2.) (Balaenoptera musculus) blue whale- W
3.) (Balaenoptera physalus) fin whale- W
4.) (Eschrichtius robustus) gray whale- C
5.) (Megaptera novaeangliae) humpback whale- W
6.) (Physeter macrocephalus) sperm whale- W
7.) (Phocoena phocoena) harbour porpoise- W/C
8.) (Neophocaena phocaenoides) finless porpoise- C
9.) (Inia geoffrensis) Amazon river dolphin- C
10.) (Delphinapterus leucas) beluga whale- C
11.) (Globicephala macrorhynchus) Short-finned Pilot Whale- C
12.) (Orcinus orca) killer whale- C
13.) (Pseudorca crassidens) False Killer Whale- C
14.) (Orcaella brevirostris) Irrawaddy dolphin- C
15.) (Grampus griseus) Risso’s Dolphin- C
16.) (Cephalorhynchus commersonii) Commerson's Dolphin- C
17.) (Cephalorhynchus hectori) Hector's dolphin- W
18.) (Delphinus capensis) long-beaked common dolphin- C
19.) (Delphinus delphis) short-beaked common dolphin- W/C
20.) (Lagenorhynchus australis) Peale’s dolphin- W
21.) (Lagenorhynchus obliquidens) Pacific White-sided Dolphin- C
22.) (Lagenorhynchus obscurus) dusky dolphin- W
23.) (Sousa chinensis) Indo-Pacific humpback dolphin- C
I've had a couple of near misses as well including finding out many years later that Mote Aquarium in Sarasota, Florida had held a Pygmy Sperm Whale (for almost 2 years I believe) during a time I had been in that area of Florida. Also on my recent trip to Asia had I added an extra day in Japan (time was pretty tight as it was) I could've attempted to visit Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium to see the Pygmy Killer Whale they supposedly have. Still very much hope to see a Beaked Whale someday!
