00:00The spade-toothed whale is perhaps the most elusive species of its kind alive today.
00:08So rare, humans have never encountered one while it's still breathing.
00:11And it seems that record remains, as one of them has just been found washed up on a beach in New Zealand.
00:17The creature spans some 16.4 feet long, and it was found on July 4th on the southern half of the country's South Island, in the Otago province.
00:25According to the Conservation Department's Coastal Otago, Operations Manager Gabe Davies,
00:29Spade-toothed whales are one of the most poorly understood large mammalian species of modern times.
00:34With a conservationist adding that since the 1800s, only six samples from the elusive whale have ever been found.
00:40And until 2010, scientists had never even gotten an entire specimen.
00:44Meaning finding a completely intact whale is a massive scientific discovery.
00:48New Zealand's Cetacean Tissue Archives says that the remains will be placed in cold storage, so that genetic samples can be taken.
00:54With the organization adding,
00:56The rarity of the whale means conversations around what to do next will take more time because it is a conversation of international importance.
01:03It's a wild discovery involving likely the rarest marine mammal species in existence.
01:08It's a wild discovery involving typically the rarest marine mammal species.
01:13It's a wild Tierman's land
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