Male or Female Humpback Whale

How can you tell the difference between a male or female Humpback Whale? Located on the lower belly the female Humpback Whales have what is known as a hemispherical lobe which is about the size of a grapefruit and located near the mammary grooves on the lower belly close to the fluke. The male Humpback Whales do not have this bump on the lower belly and the area looks less busy when observing them as they roll at the surface or during their inverted fluke slap. Today we observed on both our morning and afternoon tours many social mums and calves who were sprawled out in the sighting grounds and enjoying a relaxing day of mingling. The calves were busy showing off and as they tail lobed and lifted their flukes above the waters surface we could see the lower bellies of these young calves and confirm if they were male or female.

The afternoon also observed further away from the socialising mum and calf pods a boisterous competition pod that had formed with eight males charging after one another. It was spectacular in the still, warm conditions today to watch as they displayed incredible energy for so late in their breeding season. The boys were intense and deliberately trying to push each other in towards the vessel as they attempted to outmanoeuvre each other and get closest to the female. The mums and calves had certainly noticed the arrival of all these boisterous males and taught their calves the importance of control their sound so as to avoid detection should any of the bachelor males lose interest in the competition pod and start looking for other females nearby. Telling the difference between a male or female Humpback Whale can be easy or challenging depending on the individuals activities and age group but today we had great opportunities to see how to tell the difference. It was a wonderful and warm spring day which means we are now feeling much closer to summertime and hard to believe our Bremer Bay Orca Season is just around the corner!

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