22.08.2020 – Family reunion

Nothing is more important than family…at least for several members of the animal kingdom. Family bonds represent strong relationships that echo through time and are strengthened by nurture and care. In some ocean wanderers, families also represent cultural entities, each with its own story, its own hunting strategies, it own social traditions and its own dialect. Short-finned pilot whales (Globicephala macrorhynchus) belong to this particular group of animals that nurture indestructible family bonds where females remain with their birth pod their entire lives and are responsible for passing its culture onto new generations. Several such pods form clans of animals sharing similar habits and migrational patterns and on todays tours, we may have experienced these large clans reuniting here in Madeira. The waters of Madeira are an important habitat for this species with scientists even releasing reports of resident groups continuously returning to the islands waters. While the pod of about 20 pilot whales was discretely resting at the surface after some surface dives, the huge group of about 40 pilots in the afternoon began to frolic at the surface with several individuals barrel-rolling and even spy-hopping. One female even nursed a calf close to our zodiac, a beautiful experience!

With other dolphins, such as the Atlantic spotted dolphins (Stenella frontalis) and the Bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) family time is less embedded in their social life. Most oceanic dolphin groups are thought to be more fluid in structure, an ever-changing unit that depends on the individual decisions of each of its members. This rather complex social networking can be hard to follow but one can imagine that, in contrast to the pilot whales, spotted and bottlenose choose their families. They do so by making friends, many of which may even last a lifetime!

Whether the relationship is a question of blood or choice, family bonds within cetacean groups ensure the protection of the animals as well as facilitate important social learning processes that make all dolphins the intelligent, charismatic creatures that they are.

By Paula Thake

Sightings of the day

Ribeira Brava

10:00 Atlantic spotted dolphins, Bottlenose dolphins, Short-finned pilot whales

Stenella

15:00 Short-finned pilot whales, Loggerhead turtle