Sperm Whale

Physeter macrocephalus

Order: Cetacea
Family: Physeteridae
Protection in Spain: Vulnerable · Andalusian Catalogue
In Spanish: Cachalote

Marine taxonomy: validated in WoRMS, AphiaID 137119

Photograph: Vsevolod Rudyi, CC BY, vía iNaturalist

Page in preparation

This species is in the catalogue because of its observations, but has no reviewed editorial text yet. No automatic description is generated from the data.

Calendar in the Strait

57 %

Peak in July. Observations under CC0 or CC BY licences. The distribution also reflects observation effort.

Where it is seen

Open records from the atlas database, in cells of about 3.6 km. Opacity follows the square root of the count, and also reflects where people observe most.

See on the map

First open record: 2 July 1849
Latest record: 4 June 2026

The oldest and the most recent open observation in the extended area. A recent first observation does not mean the species is new: it means nobody had published it openly before.

Conservation

The catalogues, Andalusian and Spanish, are what binds; the Red Book assesses the Spanish population with IUCN criteria, and the global Red List is the context.

LCNTVUENCR

Andalusian Catalogue: Vulnerable
Spanish Catalogue: Vulnerable
Global Red List (IUCN): VU · Vulnerable

Andalusian Catalogue: Junta de Andalucía, list of 24 April 2025. Spanish Catalogue: MITECO, table of 30 June 2025. Red Book: SEO/BirdLife, 2021 (Annex I). IUCN: via GBIF, 6 September 2026. Red Book and IUCN categories are assessments; catalogue categories are legal obligations.

Classification

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Cetacea
Family: Physeteridae
GBIF taxon key: 8123917

Sources

Distribution and calendar: Bioestrecho's own database, ingested from GBIF and OBIS
Photograph: Vsevolod Rudyi, CC BY, vía iNaturalist
Taxonomy: GBIF backbone, pending WoRMS for marine taxa
Last revised: 8 September 2026