19.08.2018- Grooming giants

Everybody enjoys a good grooming every now and then and things aren’t any different for cetaceans. We often encounter animals with patchy or flaky skin and, while this may often be an indication for dermal infections or illnesses, it could also mean that the animal had just „exfoliated“. The shedding of skin is part of a natural antifouling mechanism to stop the animals from being encrusted with parasites or other marine organisms that may cause dermal degradation.

The sheer size of Sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus) makes such sheddings an absolute event or, better said, a social event. Marine mammals generally posess no facial expressions and do not have hands which means that they primarily depend on their acoustics as well as on body contact to communicate with their peers. Sperm whales often aggregate to socialize with one another during which body scrubs are frequently initiated, making the shedding of excess skin one of the many rewards of such interactions.

This evening a group of nine giants gathered and began to groom one another, with several animals hanging vertically in the water column as they rubbed their enormous bodies against each other. The whales may lose considerable amounts of skin during these periodic „scratchathons“, which can be seen floating at the waters surface, some so large that they may be mistaken for a plastic bag.

We saw no pieces of skin floating around but such social events involving these massive animals are, nonetheless, incredibly intense and rewarding to witness. A similar congregation was captured last year during a sighting on our Stenella and is featured on Lobosonda’s Underwatersounds series on our social media pages. The video is called „The Gathering“ and also includes incredible vocalizations made by the animals amidst their interactions.

Apart from the Sperm whale spa/social event, we also had sightings with Bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus), Atlantic spotted dolphins (Stenella frontalis), Short-finned pilot whales (Globicephala macrorhynchus) and a small Loggerhead turtle (Caretta caretta). What a day!

By Paula Thake

Sightings of the day

Ribeira Brava

15:00 Sperm whales

Stenella

09:00 Bottlenose dolphins, Short-finned pilot whales

15:30 Atlantic spotted dolphins, Sperm whales, Loggerhead turtle

18:00 Atlantic spotted dolphins, Sperm whales