Our beautiful city and a breaching Humpback calf on another magnificent day in Western Australia! This little one was practicing some dominant behaviour towards a large male Humpback who was trying to impress mum with some pec slapping and see if she would accept him as an escort male. Not sure if mum was too impressed though as she continually tried to keep moving away from the male and over towards us much to his surprise! How on earth could those impressive pectoral slaps have not impressed this young female he must have been thinking.
The male decided that perhaps chasing after the female would work but this resulted in a lot of twisting and turning as she kept her calf close to our vessel most of the time and continued blocking his approach. He eventually managed to get in-between our vessel and the female and continued to try his best to impress her and not let her move too far away, maybe his persistence will pay off in the end! Fascinating to watch this high energy interaction between two adults and a young calf who was learning a big lesson in the Language of the Whales™ today.
ID Log
Date – 18.11.16
Species – Humpback
Lat – Undisclosed Long – Undisclosed
Notes – Mother of calf
