Southern Right Whale
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Peale’s Dolphins & Right Whales
We’re working with Southern Right Whales here. And, you know, Right Whales are, well, as their name suggests, they’re pretty easy to study and very amenable to that. So we were out in our boat, I think there was three right whales on this time, just lazing at the surface. And they were pretty quiet, which was great because it meant that we have a lot of opportunity to approach to get photo identification shots of their heads and collect some tissue samples. So I was feeling pretty happy that the animals were behaving quietly and nicely. And then, of course, a pod of Peale’s dolphins arrived and immediately the right whales became super agitated and animated and the Peale’s dolphins were swimming round and round and round them and the boat and then doing ridiculous jumps. And then we had as usual, the upside down tail slapping, which they decided to do in front of the boat. And right in the face of the right whales, It was really undignified and the right whales were really not impressed. And that was the end of data collection for the right whales because after that, they were so agitated and yeah, playing around with the right, with the Peale’s dolphins. So it wasn’t a great for data collection, but it was really nice to look at that interaction. And, ,it did leave us all with a big smile on our faces. In many ways, Peale’s are like real life Disney characters because their colouration pattern and they have this dark face, Peale’s Dolphins. It’s one of their characteristic features that their face and their chin is sort of a dusky black in coloration. And it just means that when they’re doing naughty things and curious things, you can kind of see the whites around their eyeballs really vividly because the black. So, they’re always, they always give that impression of being, yeah, just popped out from a Disney movie. -Caroline This post was adapted from a voice recording in episode 71 of the Whale Tales Podcast, listen here.
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Mum I’m Hungry – 29/9/21
Spotted this Mother Southern right whale feeding up Bub in the shallows. This southern Right Whale and calf was hugging the coastline just north of Perth they stayed close for almost a week , appeared to be feeding up the calf in the calm shallower waters The calf can drink up to 600 litres of…
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Augusta Wildlife Safari – 28/7/22
Augusta Wildlife Safari on a beautiful winters morning as we enjoyed the company of a Southern Right Whale mother, calf and aunty, a Humpback mother and calf, Bottlenose Dolphins and cheeky Fur Seals. The mother Humpback Whale launched into a couple of huge breaches and her young calf quickly followed enthusiastically to copy mum. The…
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Southern Right Whale Season – 6/8/22
Southern Right Whale Season has begun in Augusta as today we enjoyed the company of four mother and calf pods along with a few social adults. A beautiful winters morning was enjoyed as the peaceful conditions were a refreshing change after the last week of stormy weather. The distinctive surfacing of an adult Southern Right…
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Southern Right Whales in Augusta – 7/8/22
Southern Right Whales in Augusta are starting to gather in good numbers as we see this endangered species take over Flinders Bay. A beautiful morning greeted us and as we departed the Augusta Boat Harbour all eyes scanned carefully for the distinctive surfacing of whales. A large, muffled blow appeared which was quickly followed by…