Pilot Whale
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Flipper Slapping Pilot Whales – 2025
So I had two wonderful research assistants with me this past summer, and one of them, it was her last evening before going to fly back. And so it’s our last evening. It’s a beautiful evening on the water. We don’t seeing any whales right off the base, we go to Cape St Lawrence which is the most northwestern point of Cape Breton Island. And around the corner, up along the highlands, there’s beautiful groups of pilot whales just kind of socializing and lazing around in the water. And we’re watching them and of course you turn the boat off and you just drift along and they’re drifting to you and from you and you’re kind of like in a pilot whale soup, which is amazing. It’s the best way to watch them because you’re not creating noise, you’re just stopped. You’re just letting the whales do what they want. And then all of a sudden we had these, these juveniles and sub adults come up to the edge of the boat and one by one there was three of them that were close, they turned over onto their backs and started flipper slapping all together. All three of them in tandem. One started, and then the others. You could just see them get them on their backs and they’re like slap, slap. And this went on for like seven minutes that you had this trio of flip slapping pilot whales. And I’ve seen singles and doubles, but this was the first time I’d seen three of them almost touching each other on their backs, flipper slapping. And of course with flipper slapping you might say, okay, well, what’s the function of flipper slapping? It seems like it’s just amazing. A lot of pilot whales do it. It’s one of my favorite behaviours. They roll on their back, they take those long, noodly wobbly, long pectoral fins, and they just slap the water, sometimes with one fin, sometimes with two, both fins at the same time. And it’s like a moment which exudes pure joy. Why exactly we do it, we don’t know. It’s often when they’re socializing, it’s often when they’re goofing around. So, you know, it’s hard to prove some things for fun, but that’s kind of what it feels like might be occurring. But it’s certainly one of the, I call them the gestures of the sea sometimes. They’re very charismatic, they’re very gregarious and they like to goof around. And that’s pilot whales for you. So that was like one of my favorite memories from the summer was just this trio of flip slapping pilot whales on their backs right near the boat. Just really everyone was just hanging out. And so moments like that, of course, just amazing. -Elizabeth This post was adapted from a voice recording in episode 88 of the Whale Tales Podcast, listen here
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What Makes Bremer Bay Orca Breach? – 27/3/25
What makes Bremer Bay Orca breach? Today we observed an amazing display of Orca surface language and an example of what makes and Orca breach. It was a busy morning as on our arrival blows were sighted just ahead and we observed two well known and much loved family pods with Queen and Kidji in…
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Hundreds of Whales and Dolphins – 2021
One comes to mind featuring a deep diving whale. I was doing some expeditions in the tropical Indian Ocean off the Seychelles. So it’s located in the western tropical Indian Ocean. It’s actually very close to the equator. And we’re conducting research on Pygmy Blue Whales there. And we’ve encountered a lot of different species.…
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Orcas on the Hunt – 3/4/25
We arrived to find a huge oil slick spread across the surface at the hotspot this morning, with birds swirling overhead. Amongst them was a beautiful juvenile wandering albatross, nearly its entire body still covered in dark plumage, yet to turn white as it matures. The slick was big and was giving off the unmistakable…
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Orca Feeding Interrupted by Pilot Whales – 17/1/25
Orca feeding was interrupted by the Pilot Whales today as a hectic morning of surging, high energy and a fast kill unfolded shortly after our arrival in The Patch. Greeting us firstly were the Pilot Whales who were busy and surging quickly through the swell. It is always fantastic to see them and the large…