18.07.2024 – Who are you?

There is no such thing as a “normal” day on Madeira’s Ocean. If you have had a look at our sighting’s statistics, you have noticed that we do see some species with much more regularity than others. During the summer days, for example, we encounter Bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) and Atlantic spotted dolphins (Stenella frontalis) almost every day. Still, they always behave a little differently – it might be a flying fish that they are feeding on, which is trying to escape from them into the air; it might be a newborn calf on their sides; or maybe an individual turning around, showing us it’s belly and slap with it’s tail onto the water, that make the particular sighting special. Honestly, no tour is like the other. Today, we had one encounter though which was without a doubt very different to any other: Pygmy killer whales (Feresa attenuata).

You have probably never heard of this species before, and honestly, I believe that these animals are also fairly new even to our most experienced staff. We had seen these small, very elusive dolphins yesterday already, and it was myself on board guiding yesterday’s afternoon tour when we first encountered them. Now, you must know, our spotters prepare our captains and guides, telling us beforehand what they believe they could be seeing from land. In that case, our spotter expected a group of Bottlenose dolphins. Arriving in the area, I could just not understand what I was looking at. These animals did not fit into any of the boxes. Complicating the sighting, they were not curious at all, rather always avoiding our boat. Intrigued to find out what we were looking at, we approached carefully for several times – but even at the end of both encounters of this species, I was only able to limit the possibilities to two species. Luckily, some of the pictures taken during today’s tour were good enough to confirm our guesses with help from experts of our local research institute. How exciting, Pygmy killer whales were only ever documented very few times around Madeira!

By Sarah Kather

Sightings of the day

Ribeira Brava

09:30 Bottlenose dolphins, Rough-toothed dolphins

13:30 Atlantic spotted dolphins, Pygmy killer whales

17:00 Bottlenose dolphins, Atlantic spotted dolphins

Stenella

09:30 Bottlenose dolphins, Rough-toothed dolphins, Atlantic spotted dolphins,

14:00 Atlantic spotted dolphins, Pygmy killer whales, Sperm whale

17:00 Bottlenose dolphins, Atlantic spotted dolphins, Sperm whale