Defensive Whale language was observed today amongst the numerous pods making their migration through Flinders Bay to maintain their reactionary distance from nearby pods. It was interesting to watch as the influx of escort pods moving through the bay was noticeable today. An escort pod is a male and female Humpback Whale who travel together and although they don’t mate for life the males will be extremely protective of their female. Nearby challenger males are always a concern as these bachelor boys are often on the lookout for females, even if they are already travelling with a male escort. A good way of deterring a bachelor male or pod approaching is by defence whale language which includes behaviours such as tail lobs, tail slaps and head lunges. Today we observed plenty of tail lobs which seemed to work well as the males maintained a good reactionary distance between themselves and nearby pods.
The power through a tail lob is easily noticed as they pivot their head downwards before launching the lower half of their bodies upwards. It results in a very fast movement that throws white water everywhere and with the offshore conditions today it flew higher than normal! The boys were busy guarding their girls but it still didn’t prevent all the bachelor males from approaching as this afternoon one escort pod were visited by a challenger. Chasing each other through the bay it wasn’t until the local Bottlenose Dolphins appeared that the escort pod used that distraction to move away from the challenger. Competition pods can last many hours or only a few short minutes depending on the whales involved but one thing is for certain is the protective male escorts would rather not participate in them at all and that is where a tail lob comes in very handy. A strong message towards the challengers which will hopefully deter their curious approaches and ensure a peaceful time ahead for the travelling escort pod.
