On June 21 this year, The Daily Telegraph officially released pictures of mating, taken in the waters surrounding Tonga. Although these pictures were shot two years ago, scientists were hesitant to share the photos with the public. They wanted to be 100% sure that it was, in fact, mating that they had captured. Until now, mating has been a mystery to us. Whales tend to be fairly elusive with this aspect of their behavior, we often will see competition groups form, and assume mating takes place shortly after. But no one really knew for sure.
The article suggests that their mating was a brief interaction, which may explain why we’ve never seen it, or documented it, before now. A few unexpected things happened while observing the coupling: The male selected was not the largest, nor the primary escort, but rather a smaller competitor. Also, the female released a bubble blast from her mouth, not her blow holes, as the couple seperated.
At the 2012 Whale Tales event, an annual Maui conference put on by Whale Trust, Dr. Dan Salden shared a series of still shots which they initially beleived to be mating. After further reviewing the pictures, and beginning to identify each of the individuals involved, they realized there were no females participants in the group. A disappointing discovery, especially after beleiving they were so close to finally having the highly sought after documentation. Hopefully, as this season progresses, we will be able to document this behavior for the first time, here at home in Hawaii.
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