Baby
Whales on the Move
Can
You Spot Them?
Watch
the calves in action as they migrate and practice being grownups! As
you read these snippets from observers' reports, make a list of calf
behaviors.
Click
photos to enlarge. |
Reports
from Gray Whale Migration Observers |
![](https://s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/journeynorth.org/images/graphics/tnail/u-z/gwhale_KJ02_013.jpg) |
We
suspect a cow/calf pair when we see a single whale in close, just
outside the kelp bed. If the whale is traveling slowly, making more
frequent surfacings, and if we see anything extraneous — even
an odd splash — we suspect a calf. |
![](https://s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/journeynorth.org/images/graphics/tnail/u-z/gwhale_safetyMikeWinston.jpg) |
Like
children everywhere, the baby whales stay close to their mothers.
A calf often rolls along the mom's back as she surfaces for air,
or rests on its mom's back.
The calf will sometimes do this if it feels threatened. |
![](https://s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/journeynorth.org/images/graphics/tnail/u-z/gwhale_KJ02_036.jpg) |
The
calf was very active. We saw it riding on mom's back a number times.
It did a spy hop, rolled around with its head above water, it lunged,
and we saw its pecs. The mom fluked a couple of times, they milled
and swam in circles above whale rock and again near transect. We
watched them for almost an hour. |
![](https://s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/journeynorth.org/images/graphics/tnail/u-z/gwhale_breechbaby.keith.jpg) |
One
calf seemed to be trying the limits of how far it could stray from
mom before she tugged the leash. We saw the calf poke its head up
and smile, showing perfectly yellow baleen. Moments later the calf
was back in under mom's "wing." Ten minutes later, around
Coal Oil Point, the calf breached twice. This mom is in for quite
a road trip! |
![](https://s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/journeynorth.org/images/graphics/tnail/u-z/gwhale_BabySlide.jpg) |
Often
what turns out to be a cow/calf pair looks like a single whale at
first. From our vantage we look across the little one, usually tucked
on mother's inside flank. There the calf is protected from offshore
dangers. They swim in sync as one body. The calves usually have
a weak blow, if any. So what we see is momma's big blow. Then, when
they pass the Point, we can see a separation of the two bodies.
|
![](https://s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/journeynorth.org/images/graphics/tnail/u-z/gwhale_picklehead.jpg) |
NEXT:
How
do you know when you're face to face with a gray whale calf?
|
Photos
(top to bottom): Keith Jones, Mike Hawe, Keith Jones, Keith
Jones, Mike Hawe.
Mike Hawe.
Back to Lesson
|