Pilot whale surfacing
Globicephala macrorhynchus
Short-finned Pilot Whale · Tenerife · 17 April 2026
A Short-finned Pilot Whale surfacing in the channel between Tenerife and La Gomera, which holds one of the very few resident populations of this species anywhere in the world. Warm, deep water close to shore lets them stay year-round instead of following food on a wider migration, which is why whale-watching out of the island's south-west coast is reliable in a way it rarely is elsewhere.
The tall, forward-set, backward-curving dorsal fin is the mark. It is a large dolphin rather than a true whale, despite the name, and it lives in tight family pods led by the oldest females, who stop breeding in middle age and go on leading for decades - one of the few animals besides us with a menopause.
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