22.02.2024 – Good company & unexpected visits

There is a general misconception concerning the social lives of different dolphin species; people often assume that they travel in family groups. While this is true for larger dolphins such as female Orcas (Orcinus orca) and Short-finned pilot whales (Globicephala macrorhynchus), it doesn’t apply to the Bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus).

Bottlenose dolphins aren’t confined to their birth pod and the associated cultural aspects, they make their own culture, choose their own little families. Their choice of companion depends on different factors but many of these coincide with the factors seen in our selection of friends, including similar life phases, common interests and sharing characteristic traits. Scientists have even documented some like-minded individuals remaining with their closest friends for their entire lives, but these are often relationships amongst two or three animals rather than an entire pod.

These mini-groups within the Bottlenose pod were observed during both our trips today along with some special visitors, some expected and others quite unexpected. An expected non-cetacean visitor at this time of the year is the Northern gannet (Morus bassanus) an elegant bird with the ability to plunge after its prey at incredible speeds. Unexpected visitors included an unidentified nudibranch feasting on the feather coral on some sargassum at the surface and a young Atlantic puffin (Ftatercula arctica). The sargassum, the tiny organisms colonising it and the puffin aren’t species that occur in Madeira, so their presence might be an indication of some changes in the ocean.

By Paula Thake

Sightings of the day

Stenella

09:30 Bottlenose dolphins

13:30 Bottlenose dolphins