Humpback Whale escort pod during the month of November is always a lovely surprise as most of the male Humpbacks have already made their way back towards Antarctica in preparation for next years breeding season. Meeting this escort pod today was and exciting experience as mother, calf and her male escort were travelling not far from Rottnest Island. The male was very protective of the female and began to communicate The Language of the Whales™ towards us as he treated us just like another male. Using his body to position himself in-between us and the mother/calf ensured that he established who was boss and made sure we didn’t get any ideas of taking his girl away from him!
He needn’t worry as the female was content with his company and was not looking to join up with us to replace him as a male escort. Still, he watched over us and made sure the females attention was on him the whole time, while her young calf seemed to be curious towards us and ignored the escort male for the most part! It is always fantastic when whales will communicate towards you just as if you were a whale yourself, this is the ideal whale watch as they are thinking in a relaxed mindset and instead of reactionary or fearful. They came to an abrupt stop as another pod drifted across their path 100 meters ahead of them and the male went from avoiding the female getting too close to us and instead all three moved closer and into our sound footprint. Now understanding we weren’t here to take his girl away or steal the attention this protective male escort decided to use our sound footprint to his advantage and hide away from the secondary pod moving past. The tactic worked perfectly as they avoided the other pod and our Humpback Whale escort pod continued their journey as we departed and wished them well on their trip ahead.
