FISHERY BULLETIN: VOL. 75, NO. 1 



FIGURE 4.— Distribution of spy outs 

 by adults and calves as noted from 

 the Colina Coyote observation 

 station. 



Individual spy outs sometimes extend for rather 

 long periods, another evidence that the animal is 

 touching bottom at the time most of them occur. 

 Nineteen examples ranged from 4 to 17 s duration 

 with a mean of 7.6 s. In the longest, the animal 

 rose from the water above the eyes, subsided until 

 only the tip of its snout showed, and rose again to 

 about the angle of the gape before slipping back 

 again. 



Occasionally spy outs occur in deeper water 

 where a whale cannot be expected to touch and 

 then the whale subsides very rapidly, just as 

 would be expected of an unsupported animal in 

 water. 



Some spy outs do seem to involve aerial vision as 

 has been suggested by Gilmore (1961). When an 

 adult whale and calf are pursued, the adult may 

 sometimes stop her flight and spy out. In one such 

 case, the animal rose slowly and we could see its 

 eyes. After such a spy out, the whale pair typically 

 resumed avoidance behavior. 



Of 52 spy outs recorded at Colina Coyote, 3 

 involved water coming from the corners of the 

 whale's mouth. In two cases, off Cabo Forment, the 

 released water was muddy. In one case, while the 

 observer watched through a telescope, the whale 

 rose with muddy water cascading out of the corner 

 of its mouth. A similar instance was noted at 

 Punta Tosco at the entrance to Almejas Bay in 

 which an animal rose near the observer in a drift- 

 ing skiff, its back toward the boat. As it rose, clear 

 water gushed a foot out from the head from both 

 lower mouth corners (Figure 5). 



Thigmotaxis 



One of the most striking behavioral attributes of 



mother-young pairs is nearly constant bodily 

 contact in resting or passively floating animals. 

 The contact seems to be solicited by both partners 

 since the young often swims over the mother and is 

 lifted as she raises head, body, or tail under the 

 baby. Babies may slide over the mother from her 

 head to her tail stock. In the course of such contact, 

 the baby may roll onto its side or back, throwing 

 its pectorals into the air. Lifting by the mother 

 may force the baby calf out of the water even in a 

 relatively quiescent pair. 



In frightened animals, the lifting continues on a 

 more violent scale as this excerpt from field notes 

 (Norris) shows. "February 2, 1974. 1300: Bahia 

 Grande. A calf was noosed and the line cinched 

 tight around the pectorals. The calf was ac- 

 companied by a large barnacle-encrusted whale 

 and shortly by another adult. They were the most 

 violent consorts we had yet encountered, thrash- 

 ing their tails and rolling over, repeatedly sup- 

 porting the baby partly out of water. An attempt 

 was then made to place a head net over the calf by 

 inching the vessel's plank over the thrashing trio. 

 Suddenly one flailed sideways sending a sheet of 

 water over the bow. The head net was successfully 

 placed and line slacked off, all three animals 

 moving 50 m or so from the bow. Then one adult 

 heaved its body into an incredibly powerful thrash 

 of the tail, calf on top, causing the young animal to 

 fly completely free of the water. Both head ret and 

 noose flew free." 



On 1 February 1974 a young whale was cap- 

 tured and shortly after it was netted, the ac- 

 companying adult disappeared. Because we did 

 not want the young animal to lose its parent al- 

 together we released it as soon as it could be 



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