05.10.2022 – Gentle Giants

Slowly it feels the Spotties are preparing to leave us and the Macronesian islands and move back to their winter habitat of the Bahamas. This species clearly prefers colder and calmer waters, so as soon as the first glimpse of winter hits, they will gather in huge pods of up to thousands of animals and migrate all over the Atlantic. Groups are getting less abundant and very spread out. These days the weather has made it very difficult to find animals, with a thick layer of clouds and fog that covered the island, our spotter had a hard job scouting any movement.
Luckily we managed to find at first only two Atlantic Spotted dolphins (Stenella frontalis) and later on found the rest of the pod, acrobatic and playful as they are!
In the afternoon the menu included Bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) and three bull sperm Whales (Physeter macrocephalus) travelling separately and diving one after another. The Sperm Whale fluke really is one of my favorite displays in nature, turning form gentle giants to fast swimming predators to hunt on squid in the abyss.

by Paulina Kalita

Sightings of the day

Ribeira Brava

10:00 Atlantic Spotted dolphins

14:30 Bottlenose dolphins

Stenella

10:00 Atlantic Spotted dolphins

15:00 Bottlenose dolphins, Sperm whale