29.06.2024 – Kindergarden

There are also nurseries or kindergarten groups at sea! Dolphin mothers organise themselves well. If a mother has a very small calf, she cannot take it with her on a deeper dive. So what to do? The females with calves stick together. Another mother takes over the care of this calf while the mum can fortify herself. When the mother returns with a belly hopefully full of fish, she naturally takes over the babysitting. A very supportive behaviour! Today we were able to observe a large school of Atlantic spotted dolphins (Stenella frontalis), with a nursery group in the middle. The calves were still very young, super small, almost as if you could put them in your trouser pocket. Afterwards we had an encounter with four Bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus).

At lunchtime we saw Bottlenose dolphins twice. A dolphin accompanied us for quite some time in the bow wave. Suddenly, the animal jumped out of the water. My lens was set to close-up, so there was only a small section of the first jump. You could say it wasn’t a perfect photo and yet it was absolutely perfect, because on closer inspection of the photo you can see a cleaner wrasse that had attached itself to the lower jaw of the Bottlenose dolphin, close to the eye. The blue eye of the cleaner fish can also be seen. Two different creatures, eye to eye in a moment of closeness!

By Fatima Kutzschbach

Sightings of the day

Ribeira Brava

09:30 Atlantic spotted dolphins, Bottlenose dolphins

13:30 Bottlenose dolphins

Stenella

09:30 Atlantic spotted dolphins, Bottlenose dolphins

13:30 Bottlenose dolphins, Sperm whale

16:00 Pygmy sperm whale, Striped dolphins, Sperm whale