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yesterday

Study Finds Whales and Dolphins Often Engage in Mutual, Dolphin-Initiated Encounters

Using public imagery plus rare humpback camera tags, researchers call for acoustic monitoring to probe why these meetings occur.

A bottlenose dolphin is seen "bow riding," or swimming just in front of a humpback whale, potentially getting a boost from the wave created by the larger mammal.
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Overview

  • Peer-reviewed research in Discover Animals analyzed 199 independent interactions documented over roughly two decades across 17 locations worldwide.
  • The dataset covered 425 baleen whales from six species and about 1,570 dolphins from 13 species, with humpbacks involved in 68 percent of events.
  • Dolphins initiated most encounters, typically approaching near whales’ heads, and roughly one quarter of all events were classified as mutual and positive.
  • Humpback whales showed the strongest reciprocal responses, with about one third of their interactions coded as positive, and aggressive displays were rare.
  • Two suction-cup camera tags on humpbacks captured bottlenose dolphins closely following from the surface to the seafloor, and the authors urge longer, targeted observations plus acoustic recordings to test motivations and prevalence.