Great conditions greeted us this morning and with flat windless seas we headed off in search of the local #dolphinsofponta! It was not long before we observed a group of coastal bottlenose dolphins cruising south coming towards us. On closer inspection it was noted that there were in fact three pods in the bay and towards the end of the encountour, when all pods merged, 40 dolphins were counted in the group.
Image: Bottlenose Dolphins with Ponta Point in the background.
In water we were welcomed as we found ourselves visited by some of our more sociable dolfriends that included moms Dalila, Gilly, Bo and Rocha with their latest babes as well as pregnant ladies Lumpy and Widea!
Image: Baby bottlenose with a puff of milk escaping after a nursing session with mum Gilly!
Today Rocha’s little girl was allowed to join in on a circle swim and bout of conscious interaction without mum. This cute little dolphin soul can be easily identified (for now anyway) as she has a jumbo size remora attached to her as well as a series of (fading) lesions. You can check out the interaction and in-water video from the encountour at the end of this post.
Image: Gillys little girl with large pesky remora!
An interesting show of teeth and what we call an open jaw display was seen from young female Bijou -normally it’s the adult males that show us their teeth when wanting us to back-off; with Bijou however there was no aggression, no vocalising and no charging, so as to what message she was trying to relay; that is unclear.
It seems we have some predator activity in the bay as adult female Di was seen with a large, fairly recent shark bite.
Image: Bijou and her open jaws and female Di sporting a shark bite scar.
Images: Gilly nursing her babe; 2: Guests enjoying a close encounter with the dolphin kind. 3: Belly up circle swim with female.
We are looking forward to getting back on the water again and thank our guests, volunteers and supports for joining us while we keep checking in on the local dolphins.
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Did you know you can adopt a Dolphin of Ponta through the Society for Dolphin Conservation - Germany https://www.delphinschutz.org/pate-werden/mosambik. By adopting a family line you directly assist in research and conservation of dolphins!
