10.07.2018 – A fluke-dream

These wonderful morning tours on the Ribeira Brava … oh, it makes you swarm! Our small and big guests today were delighted with our wonderful sightings of Bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) and Sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus).

Because I wanted to know how/what the kids liked best, I asked. And what did you write me on the slip? “So many animals seen – Sperm whales and dolphins – The breathing of Sperm whales – The tail lift of whales – The explanations – The nature-friendly way of observation (Yes, Filipe did a great job!) – Animal welfare – Wonderful – EVERYTHING!” One-two answers sound quite like adults … but that does not matter, since we want to make everyone happy! 🙂

There are some diving scenes among today’s photos … and yes, that’s right, then the sperm whales raise their fluke. We can admire such a tail lift and this is giving the whales a good angle to dive into the blue depths where they are hunting squid. Such fluke photos are in great demand for researchers, because each fluke is special and you can distinguish the animals from each other. So it is from great use for identification!

Today we could not only observe the intense breathing of the whales since the animals were close we really got to hear it very well. Pffff, pffff, pffff … that’s how it went! After a long dive (oxygen uptake), as well as before the long descent (oxygenation), these whales breathe often and intensively. When it goes down, it is inhaled again and then exhaled well, only a little residual air remains in the lungs.

Did we had a nice trip? Yes, it was a true fluke dream.

P.S .: Among the Bottlenose dolphins a guest mentioned, the synchronous movements of dolphins looked like ballet – water ballet! 🙂

by Fatima Kutzschbach

Sightings of the day

Ribeira Brava

09:00Bottlenose dolphins, Sperm whales

Stenella

09:00Atlantic Spotted dolphins, Sperm whales

15:30Sperm whales, Atlantic Spotted dolphins, Common dolphins, Bottlenose dolphins, Striped dolphins