The coloration is overall dark gray on males with light patches on the front half of the beak and around the head, and small white spots on the bottom of the tail, but the location may be variable.

This beaked whale has had fewer than 20 strandings off the coasts of Japan, Taiwan,[4] California, the Galapagos Islands, New South Wales, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, the Maldives, and the Strait of Malacca.

[6][7] In February 2021, a pod of three whales was sighted at the Parengarenga Canyons, off North Cape (Otou), New Zealand.

[8][9] Unlike all other known members of Ziphiidae, there is no evidence that the males engage in combat, although this may be due to a limited sample size.

One individual, identified from a DNA sample, was known to have interacted with a pelagic longline fishery in the central and western Pacific Ocean.