14.09.2026 – Sophisticated socialites

If you could sum up all dolphins with one word (apart from the word dolphin…ha!) it would be social. Everything about dolphins is social. All of them exist and thrive in a colourful array of social structures where us humans find many parallels but also many differences.

Most oceanic dolphins, like the Bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) and Atlantic spotted dolphins (Stenella frontalis) exist in so-called fission/fusion societies. These ever-changing entities consist of smaller subgroups within their pods of animals that represent constants in these ever-changing communities. The level of change within these societies also varies from species to species, but was first described in the complex communities of Bottlenose dolphins.

Other larger dolphins, like the Short-finned pilot whales (Globicephala macrorhynchus), thrive in family pods that are extremely stable in nature. These matrilineal pods represent units of intensive collaboration, particularly when it comes to the care and education of the younger generation. Here, all females help out – even when it comes to nursing.

Other toothed whales, like Sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus) boast similar structures to the pilot whales, but there is also a group of social toothed whales that we know so very little about – the beaked whales. The species we encountered today, the Blainville’s beaked whale (Mesoplodon densirostris), is probably the species we know the most about. These deep sea dwellers move in harem groups – stable female entities with a different alpha male taking over the group from time to time.

Madeira is an important habitat for all three of these species – so we would do well to consider the lives of these sophisticated socialites when it comes to marine conservation.

By Paula Thake

Sightings of the day

Ribeira Brava

09:00 Bottlenose dolphins, Short-finned pilot whales

13:00 Bottlenose dolphins, Short-finned pilot whales

Steno

09:30 Blainville’s beaked whales, Bottlenose dolphins, Short-finned pilot whales

13:30 Atlantic spotted dolphins, Bottlenose dolphins, Short-finned pilot whales