11.10.2019 – An (almost) impossible task?

Today we face an (almost?) impossible task! It’s about a very, very, very difficult decision! Which baby is sweeter? The small cute calf of the Pilot whales (Globicephala macrorhynchus) or the cheeky dolphin baby of the Atlantic Spotted dolphin (Stenella frontalis)? Well, there can only be one answer! Both of course !! But please decide for yourself and take a look at the photos of today. 🙂 And who feels like … maybe you want to announce your opinion in the comments :). By the way, it apparently seems the tiny Spotted dolphin calf is a baby boy since I could not discover any milk gland slits. A variant of distinguishing male and female animals from the marine mammals is to look at the abdominal area … a light task today because the calf did us the favor to slightly turn while jumping so we were able to admire the slightly pink belly. Females have lateral milk gland slits next to the genital slit.

Yesterday, the viewing position was unfortunately quite difficult but today there were three different species in a larger area. Incidentally, the Pilot whales were accompanied by Bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus). It was interesting to see that the nursery group of Pilot whales did not really liked it when the Spotted dolphins dolphins approached them. Nevertheless, everything went very peacefully, the beautiful Pilot whales moved went on and the Atlantic Spotted dolphins were busy checking our boat out anyway. So every day and every tour out there on the sea is different.

In the afternoon we met a small nursery group of Bottlenose dolphins twice. Especially the smallest among them, was very cheeky. And, of course, this too is added into the (almost) impossible task of deciding who has the sweetest calf. Actually, it’s clear who will do the race anyway. Both are equally adorable, don´t you agree? 🙂

by Fatima Kutzschbach

Sightings of the day

Ribeira Brava

10:00 Pilot whales, Bottlenose dolphins, Atlantic Spotted dolphins

Stenella

10:00 Pilot whales, Bottlenose dolphins, Atlantic Spotted dolphins

15:00 Bottlenose dolphins