Challenger bachelor male Humpback Whales are patrolling Flinders Bay in search of females. Today, this led to a flirtatious response from a female, accompanied by a dominant reaction from her escort male. The afternoon was peaceful as we departed the Augusta Boat Harbour and amongst the still conditions the local Bottlenose Dolphins had gathered for some social time. It was lovely to see the whole family pod including mum and bub as they cruised around the bow happily. It appeared they had enjoyed a big breakfast as they were all extremely content and with numerous baitfish bubbling near the waters surface throughout the bay today there was an abundance of meals available. Humpback Whale escort pods were plentiful and scattered all around the bay was the steady and consistent movements of male Humpback Whales protectively escorting their females through the sighting grounds. Maintaining a low profile to ensure they are not detected by any bachelor males nearby, the escort pods can often maintain a low profile with ease. Eventually though with all these pods on the move it is inevitable that at some point they will converge and that is exactly what happened this afternoon.
A young Humpback seemed to move straight towards a resting escort pod and although he looked startled as he quickly moved away, the large female was relaxed and gently pec slapped. It may not have kept the youngster around for long but it was certainly heard by a nearby bachelor male Humpback who came flying over towards the pod. Amongst the still conditions a competition began amongst the two males as they chased after each other dramatically. Meanwhile the female continued to pec slap as she encouraged the males and it was interesting to watch as the primary escort did a fantastic job of maintaining his dominant position. The challenger bachelor male Humpback moved away but as he did the female began to pec slap again. Encouraged by her call he returned but it was at that point the escort male decided this was going to be the end of the interaction as he launched into enormous head lunging which was spectacular! It worked a treat as the challenger decided this was one tough male to compete against and moved away once more leaving the victorious escort male with his female and all was peaceful in Flinders Bay once again.
