20.12.2023 – Ladies round

Our team obviously has less chances to go out into the beautiful Atlantic during the low season so we make sure to savour each and every trip out there. Today I had the pleasure of venturing out with a small group of guests on our Ribeira Brava to encounter a pod of Bottlenose dolphins (Turps truncatus) swimming alongside a pod of Short-finned pilot whales (Globicephala macrorhynchus). Pilot whale pods are generally matriarchal in structure, containing females, juveniles and calves from the same family, all practicing and/or learning the same “culture”. It’s fairly easy to distinguish females from their male counterparts; pilot whale bulls are significantly bigger and their dorsal fin is much broader at its base. From what we saw, the pod consisted of females and more or less the same could be said about the Bottlenose dolphins.

While sexual dimorphism is very strong amongst larger dolphin species, Bottlenose dolphins belong to the groups of species where distinguishing genders can be a little bit challenging. The difference in size between males and females isn’t significant and there aren’t any other distinguishing features that can be observed from the boat. It is, however, known that females prefer the company of fellow females, so when we spot a pod with calves we feel that it’s safe to assume that the group is a ladies round.

Generally males tend to be the larger animals in the toothed whales family but the opposite goes for the baleen whales, meaning the larger variants of the biggest animals of our planet are female. Today our team also managed a sighting with a large Fin whale (Balaenoptera physalus) this morning. It was unclear whether this was a male or female animal, both genders reach gigantic sizes that can stretch well over 25m, making it the second largest animal after the Blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus). Fin whales also belong to the most gregarious of all the rorquals, often travelling in small groups although here it is unclear whether these consist exclusively of one gender.

By Paula Thake

Sightings of the day

Ribeira Brava

13:30 Bottlenose dolphins, Short-finned pilot whales

Stenella

09:30 Bottlenose dolphins, Fin whales