Meet local #dolphinsofponta Igor B.03e bdm this #finfriday! This feisty young male made it onto the #dolphincare catalogue in the October in 2011 and as been recorded in the Ponta do Ouro Partial Marine Reserve since then. We estimate Igor to be around 13 years old and his fin has remained relatively unchanged since the beginning.
Our first in-water records of Igor date back to May 2012 were he can be seen as a young sub adult already exhibiting boy brawl scars with rake marks new and old. His ventral speckling had stated and given the image of him in the company of Noodle in 2011 we estimate he has already been away from mums side for about two/three years.
Over the years he has been seen in the company of males Avalon, Razor, Thunder and Noodle and is one of our circle swimmer ring leaders. He is sociable and when in the right mood will engage very closely without touching! In 2017 Igor was recorded with some deep rake marks on his dorsal fin and looked like he had a back eye. Nowadays Igor has a tattered tail that can also be used to identify him.
Male on male social sexual behaviour is a common sighting in the area. Males can often be seen in small groups with an older male overseeing what looks to be social behaviour that includes mounting, shoving and chasing with penises erect as can be seen in the video from 2015 where Igor can be seen dominating younger male Pluto.
Male bottlenose dolphins form bachelor groups with their relatives! Dr Diaz-Aguirre and her team studied the population at Coffin Bay in Australia and discovered the dolphins clearly favoured relationships based on blood relations, similar to humans who socialise more with their own relatives, such as brothers or cousins!
Just before lockdown Igor was recorded in the same male on male behaviour, this time with young boys Freddy, Shiva and Gambit.
To find out how you can go about adopting one of our special finned friends please visit the site of the Society of Dolphin Conservation in Germany.
Don’t forget to checkout our partners at the World Cetacean Alliance to find out more about our vision of A World where cetaceans are only found in the wild, are respected and fully protected!
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