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| (Copyright Ernst Shrijver) |
Interesting to hear Stevo's report re porpoises leapfrogging,
we (Nick and I) were at ST Davids Head today and saw the same thing three times from different individuals,
must be something in the air/water!!
cheers
Malcolm
Yep Malcolm I suppose its a phenomenum we have all observed quite often over the years and most often in the winter I think. It is obviously social interraction and seems to be aggressive to some degree. This is a pic' Ernst took in Ramsay Sound (I think) and passed on.
- Is it females driving off suckling young to wean them?
- Large young hassling mum for milk?
- Males jousting for attentions of females?
- Males hassling females?
- Females rebuffing males?
- courting malew driving off young?
- Youngsters playfighting.
Seriously though, there often seems to be three animals involved and although it is very difficult to distinguish well grown young from adults they do have kind of underdeveloped features which to the experienced observer, given a decent view, seems to denote youthfulness.
I reckon as your animals are usually a lot closer than ours, it is likely you might get better views but thats what I seem to be seeing! It ovten seems to be accompanied by some tail slapping and big high breaching as well as some semi breaching/collisions. Either way when you see it, it rather dispels the myth that porp's are boring and dont do much!
I wonder just how aggressive or playful this is and if it might result in injuries? So many questions!