The northern bottle-nosed whale, Hyperoodon ampullatus, is a large hunter of deep-sea squid and small fish found mainly in the cool waters of the North Atlantic. It can dive deeper and for longer than any other whale using sonar to detect its prey.

It is most commonly sighted in a gully of water on the boundary of cold polar currents and warmer Atlantic currents from Nova Scotia to Iceland, favouring depths of above 1,000 metres. However, due to its innate inquisitiveness it is noted for making occasional visits to the shore.

Its unfortunate tendency to be attracted to the sound of boat engines made it a prized catch and tens of thousands of animals were caught by commercial whalers before it received official international protection in 1977. Numbers have since increased although the current status of the population remains unclear.

Dolphin-like, with a bottleneck-shaped beak and prominent bulbous forehead (melon), the whales are gregarious and generally travel in herds consisting of a single, larger male and several females with young.

Their complex repertoire of calls are used both to seek out prey and to communicate: they are sociable animals and appear to enjoy playing and touching one another. They have also been noted for their habit of remaining close to injured or distressed companions. This solidarity made it relatively easy for hunters to annihilate entire pods before any individual would dive to safety.

Pairs mate in spring and summer and gestation lasts for about 12 months. The young reach sexual maturity at around 10 years of age, becoming lighter in colour as they grow to 9.8 metres in length. The average lifespan is between 30 and 40 years.

Although rarely caught in the North Sea, stranded bottlenose whales have been reported from the coasts of Belgium, Denmark, France and the UK and as far south as Spain.

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