Our animals available for adoption in the season of 2015

Text: Katharina Heyer, Fotos: firmm

On many pleasant tours we have seen most of the animals on a regular basis, however some of them rarely. Often they came trustingly close to the boat, while others stayed in a distance.    

Pilotwhales:

Baby Hook, a frequently seen female likes to come really close to the boat. She most of the time swims in a family together with Edu and Pedro. She loves to dive underneath the boat and sometimes stays there for quite a while.

Pedro, a rather young pilot whale, we know since the 1st of September 2012. We have included him in the list of adoptable animals just recently. We see him often together with Baby Hook. He is well looked after in the family of Edu.

  

Edu is he pilot of this big family. Mostly he can be seen right in the middle and we get the impression that he touchingly looks after his family. We remember fondly, how he took care of the injured Curro.

Fernando we saw most of all. He moves in a group of three, dives often for a long time, so that we never spend much time with this family. His round, white scar that comes from a careless attached chip, is getting imperceptibly smaller. Dientes is always in his company.

      

Dientes with the small "teeth" on his dorsal fin, we saw without exception together with Fernando. He or she is somewhat smaller, and as we have never seen Dientes with a calf, we suppose that this pilot whale is a male. The future will show, if we are right….

Franzfin with his easily recognizable dorsal fin is a big male. He can mostly be seen close to the family of Edu.

  

Nina, the proud mother of a calf born in the summer of 2014, we see often. She is always in company of her cheeky young, who often comes close to the boat, looks up and dives underneath, hence we also see Nina often. She has turned into one of the most popular female pilot whales.

Nuevo is easy to identify. Due to his injury he became shy and we see him rather further away from the boat. However it seems that he has recovered from his injury.

      

Johnny had bad luck in September. We discovered him with a 6-8 meter long rope wrapped around his tail fluke that he was pulling behind him. On his tail fluke he had already an incision wound.Sierra and Ponce looked after him and tried to get the rope away from him. For a couple of days we spotted him with the rope. What a relief when we saw him without it on the 2nd of October.

Sierra has since a short while a notch in her dorsal fin. Almost without exception she moved around with Johnny and Ponce. Often she came close to the boat and one could see her saw-like notches on her dorsal fin perfectly.

  

Ponce seems to be the leader of his family. He is one of the most imposing pilot whales in the Strait of Gibraltar. His family takes good care of Sierra.

ZackZack with his injured dorsal fin was also last summer almost without exception accompanied by her nearly three-year old young. The young one is already bigger than his mother. Since a few weeks though, ZackZack also can be seen alone, however integrated in a bigger group of more or less 7 pilot-whales.

    

Mocho the small female we didn’t see very often, or eventually we didn’t recognize her in the distance. She seems to be rather shy and we have seen her only a few times near to the boat.

Gorro’s family we often came across first. His straight dorsal fin is easily discernible even from the far distance. His has a new tiny notch. His family mostly consisted of 2 females and one young pilot whale.

  

Mariano we only have seen very few times at the beginning of the season. It’s very likely that he didn’t stay the whole summer in the Strait of Gibraltar.

Vicente with his back-injury we haven’t seen often. Mainly we saw him at the beginning of the season, and then he was spotted once again in autumn from aboard a sailing ship. We will keep an eye on his behaviour.

  

Gonzo we only have seen twice during the last summer. It’s possible that he retired to a more sheltered
place. Time will show if he will appear more often or if his injury of last year will cause him troubles.

 
 

Dolphins

Lolly we have often seen in the midst of her family. Her fungal skin infection on her dorsal fin is stable. She continuous to come often to the boat and frequently dives underneath.

Puzzle is very social and always integrated in a bigger family. She seems to be well and since she is no longer one of the youngest, she is rather cautious.

Baby Leila of course continued to grow. She no longer is constantly with her mother Melissa. She belongs to the lively "teenagers", often entertaining us. Rolling, spy hopping and tailing are among her tricks.

Cutty we also always see in a bigger family. She seems to be a caring female and thus brings her young from time to time close to the boat.

  

Salto still is a very lively dolphin. Often in far distance, then as a surprise really close to the boat he jumps in the air and entices the guests to AH’s and OH’s.

White Cap is still a young dolphin, easily recognizable by his white fin. In his family there are other dolphins with similar white marks on their dorsal fins, although not as distinctive as White Cap. We are curious, if it stays so brightly white or if it will fade out during the wintertime.

  

Orcas

Matriarchin is the old grand-mother of the pack. We saw her from now to then, although not as much as in previous years. She always moves in a group of 5-7 Orcas and normally one can see Camacho not far from her.

Camacho made us very happy, when he suddenly appeared this summer. He is often far away from the boat and is often swimming alone.

  

Camorro the young male and descendent of Camacho, we have seen last summer in a sub-group of in total 7-9 Orcas. The little Wilson with his mother and aunt Lucia belongs to his family. We observed very often, how he gave the young ones pieces of tuna and taught them patiently
how to eat their prey.

Baby Wilson has turned quickly into the darling of our guests. A cheeky and trusting young, who often came to the boat, circled it and looked up in a curious way. Often he played with the other three young and learned how to eat tuna.

  

Sperm Whales

Cicatriz we haven’t seen last summer. In general we have seen fewer Sperm Whales than in the year before.

Observador was once briefly in the Strait of Gibraltar. He once again came close to the boat and looked around curiously. But the very next day he was untraceable.