21.04.2022 – Creatures of adaption

Dolphins are intelligent animals and this helps them navigate in an ever-changing environment. Bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) are exceptionally good at this. Apart from being extremely cosmopolitan in the prey that they pursue, which varies according to their distribution, they are also selective in the individuals and pods they associate with and even seek interactions with other cetacean species to gain social or hunting advantages. Short-beaked common dolphins (Delphinus delphis), as their name suggests, are a frequently encountered species that also had to adapt to human presence in their distribution area. The species, however, lacks the flexibility that Bottlenose dolphins have in regards to the diversity of their prey and as a result populations have experienced declines due to overfishing. Common dolphins are also frequent by-catch victims of the enormous super-trawlers emptying the North Atlantic and share this misfortune with Striped dolphins (Stenella coeruleoalba), a species they often associate with.

Pods from all three species were scattered across a windy ocean today and were encountered during all our trips. The consistently changing weather conditions at sea didn’t make things easy today and also forced our team to constantly adapt and readapt our strategy in finding animals. The reality of wildlife encounters is that we too must become creatures of adaption and continuously try to understand how mankind is changing our oceans and how its precious wildlife changes with it.

By Paula Thake

Sightings of the day

Ribeira Brava

10:00 Short-beaked common dolphins, Striped dolphins

14:30 Bottlenose dolphins, Short-beaked common dolphins

Stenella

09:30 Short-beaked common dolphins (snorkeling), Striped dolphins

13:30 Bottlenose dolphins

16:00 Bottlenose dolphins, Short-beaked common dolphins