|28-07-2019| Breaching and tail slapping Sperm whales

After a little waiting the lookouts spotted a few Sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus) and our team started to board. The pod had both young calfs and juveniles. The surprise was the high surface activity that we saw when we arrived: two different animals breaching and one of them tail slapping several times. The tail is their strongest muscle, and this behaviour if often related to communication. Either a display of strenght, such as telling a predator that she is not to play around, trying to reach another relative from this group, or various other options. Photo-identification is on the way, although is likely the same group as the previous day.

Thanks for joining Naturalist.pt, enjoy the pictures that our guide Maria has taken and share them if you wish.

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