Do Humpbacks like each other? The answer is yes and today’s body Language of the Whales was displaying a few pods of mother and calves socialising throughout the resting grounds. The mums appeared to roll over and look at each each other curiously while they let their calves play and frolic about them as they rest, keeping a close eye on them like human mothers do at a local playground. Today’s mothers and calves were joined by a escort pod which was interesting research to witness that the other mothers and calves pods allowed the escort, or male humpback escorting the female and calf to Antartica, to share water space close to the others.
The calves were challenging each other to show who had the dominance and better surface language with tail slapping, breaching and pec slapping. One of the mothers seemed to think that having an escort wasn’t a bad idea so she started to pec slap calling in other males in the area in hope to have them join the pod and escort them further south, a bit of language nearby was seen but the only whales to arrive on scene was a very beautiful female and calf with predominant white pigmentation who appeared to try and steal the male escort from the mother of that pod, who wasn’t allowing that to happen.
A couple of tail lobs and a quick retreat from one side of our vessel to the other with calf and escort in tow the mother moved away from Blondie so in that case one would suggest that Humpbacks certainly do like each other, except when one is trying to steal the others escort! A beautiful day watching the interaction between pods and as fewer males are now returning south finding an escort will become more challenging for the females.
