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A Small Range

Preview Map showing vaquita range in the Gulf of California with inset showing the Western Hemisphere and equator.
(Credit: Smithsonian Institution)

Vaquitas live in an area smaller than ¼ the size of metropolitan Los Angeles. Found only in the upper Gulf of California, Mexico, they are closely related to Southern Hemisphere porpoises. Their ancestors may have crossed the equator during one of the glacial periods between 2.6 million and 11,000 years ago.