354 



WHALES 



thirty seconds. Clearly, only in this position could mating continue for 

 half a minute, or even for only ten seconds as obsei^ved in Sperm Whales 

 by Ruspoli. It must be much shorter in the vertical position, in which the 

 couple have to jump out of the water. Actually, despite the many reports 

 to the effect that the couple separate after they have jumped out of the 

 water it is not yet certain that they really copulate while they jump, since 

 jumping may well be no more than a part of their love play. 



In any case, in Cetaceans - as in most mammals - prolonged love play 

 precedes the final act. Unlike many mammals, e.g. polecats and even 

 donkeys in w^hich courtship is exceedingly rough. Cetacean couples display 

 great tenderness. Humpbacks, Bottlenose Whales and Pilot Whales are 

 said to stroke their partners with their entire bodies and their flippers, as 

 they gently glide past each other. Humpbacks have also been seen to give 

 their partners playful slaps with their long pectoral fins. According to 

 Scammon these slaps can be heard miles away on quiet days. Brown and 

 Norris noticed that the male Bottlenoses in the Marineland Aquarium 

 (California) had erections whenever the cow brushed past under their 

 pectoral fins. Occasionally, bulls will bite the cows' flukes playfully, and, 

 in Florida, six-week-old Bottlenoses were observed playing their first 

 sexual games and attempting to copulate with older congeners of both 

 sexes and also with other animals in the tank, e.g. sharks and turtles. 

 Such precocious behaviour is found in most terrestrial mammals as well, 

 and so is masturbation, for which Bottlenoses in the Marineland 

 Aquarium were observed using ropes or jets of water. 



Copulation proper has been observed both in the aquarium at Florida 

 and also in that at California, where male Bottlenoses were seen to 

 approach their mates by coming up from beneath them and bending their 

 tails upwards as they did so. In the final position (which was maintained 

 for two to ten seconds), the anterior part of the bull's body was more or 

 less at right angles to that of the cow (see Fig. 195). Immediately after 

 copulation, the cows were heard to emit a series of piping sounds which 



Figure ig^. Mating of a 

 male Bottlenose Dolphin 

 with a female White- 

 beaked Dolphin (Lagen- 

 orhynchus obliquidens) in Marineland of the Pacific {Calif.). {Diagram by D. H. Brown, 

 based on one of a number of observations.) 



