A whale that washed up on a beach on New Zealand's South Island this month is believed to be a shovel-toothed beaked whale, one of the world's rarest whale species, a government environment agency said Monday.
The five-metre-long whale was a beaked whale that washed up on an Otago beach and was identified by its colouration, skull shape, beak and teeth.
These whales have never been seen alive, and no one knows how many there are, what they eat, or even where they live in a vast area of the South Pacific.
"We know very little about the whale, practically nothing," said Hannah Hendricks, marine technical adviser to the New Zealand Department of Conservation. "This discovery will lead to some amazing science and some of the first new information in the world."
If confirmed to be a shovel-toothed beaked whale, it would be the first specimen ever found in a condition that would allow scientists to dissect it, providing a map of the whale's relationship to the few other species that have been found.
"We have only identified six other shovel-toothed whales, and the ones found intact on the beaches of New Zealand's North Island were buried before DNA testing could confirm their identity, thwarting any chance of studying them," Hendrix added.
"But this time, the whale was quickly beached and transferred to cold storage, and researchers will work with local Maori iwi to plan how to examine it," the Department of Conservation said.
The indigenous people of New Zealand consider whales a sacred symbol with cultural significance.
Indigenous Pacific leaders signed a treaty last April recognizing whales as "legal persons," although such moves are not reflected in the laws of participating nations.
Nothing is currently known about the habitat of these whales, and Hendrix said that these creatures dive to great depths in search of food, and it is extremely rare for them to surface in the South Pacific, which is home to some of the deepest ocean trenches in the world.
"It's very difficult to do research on marine mammals if you don't see them in the sea. It's just a needle in a haystack. You don't know where to look," she added.
The Environmental Protection Agency said genetic testing to confirm the whale's identity could take months.
The first beaked whale bones were found in 1872 on Pitt Island in New Zealand. New Zealand is a hotspot for whale strandings, with more than 5,000 strandings recorded in the country since 1840.