I go WHALES 



Greenland Whales, too, are extensively reported to be rather heavy 

 sleepers, and Capt. Mörzer Bruins tells us that one day in the South 

 Atlantic, as his ship passed a Biscayan Right Whale sleeping at the 

 surface, the animal woke up only when the ship's bow waves lapped over 

 its head. Clearly, such observations may be expected far more frequently 

 in the case of Sperm Whales, Right Whales and Humpback Whales than, 

 for instance, of Fin Whales, since the former are lighter and therefore 

 float more readily at the surface (see Chapter 3). Even so, there are some 

 reports of sleeping Fin Whales, particularly from warmer waters. Unfor- 

 tunately we still lack information about how non-captive dolphins and 

 porpoises sleep, though Degerbol and Freuchen report that Narwhals 

 often doze at the surface. 



Another reason why dolphins are so easily trained and handled is that 

 they, and indeed all other Cetaceans, are herd animals, and herd animals 

 are known to be natmally far more tractable than others. In his contact 

 with such animals man is always helped by the fact that the animals 

 quickly learn to look upon him as one of their own herd. 



Unfortunately, little is known about the exact composition of Cetacean 

 herds, though, from \vhat sparse data we have, it would seem that like 

 herds of terrestrial mammals. Cetaceans congregate in schools of varying 

 sizes. There are first of all the very big schools (100-1,000 animals), some 

 of which are known to be mixed schools consisting of cows and bulls of 

 all ages. Apart from two exceptions, which will be discussed below, 

 nothing resembling a leader has been found in these schools, which is also 

 the case with large herds of terrestrial animals, e.g. some South African 

 zebras. 



The largest of these leaderless schools are, or rather used to be, made 

 up of Biscayan Right Whales. Nowadays, these animals are generally 

 seen alone, or in small schools, probably as a result of intense hunting, 

 but formerly they were reported to congregate in very large schools 

 indeed. 



Another of the big whales found in large schools is the Fin Whale. 

 Schools of up to 300 (and occasionally of up to i ,000) animals of this 

 species are still not uncommon, though schools of ten to fifteen seem to be 

 the more general rule. Within the school itself, diflferent observers have 

 reported the existence of especially close-knit groups of two to three animals, 

 though they could not determine with any certainty whether these were 

 family units made up of bull, cow and calf, or of cow and two calves of 

 diflferent ages. Zenkovich states in his book on whaling in the U.S.S.R. 

 (German translation 1956) that, during migration, old and young animals 

 usually travel in separate schools, to recombine into larger schools when 

 they have reached their Arctic or Antarctic destination. 



