I decided to do a Whale, dolphin and bird watching excursion by boat with Madeira Wind Birds. It was great!
We spotted several Short-finned Pilot Whales / Indische Grienden (Globicephala macrorhynchus). They are in the same family (Delphinidae) as Bottlenose Dolphins - we encountered them earlier on.
The 'best' footage is at the end. It's quite hard to get some stable video images with an SLR camera with video function. Especially if the boat is rocking and you use your 150-500mm zoom lens to shoot it. Usually you are to late with pointing your camera when a pilot whale breaks the surface. They just touch the surface for a second and dive under again.
So. I did my best. I hope you enjoy it!
(if you have any trouble watching the Flickr video - better quality than YouTube - you can watch it on YouTube as well)
For those who like the biological details:
Click a link and you'll go to the page for that rank in the biological classification on Schaapmans' Wildlife Spotting.
Kingdom: | Animalia | |
Animals | Dierenrijk | |
Phylum: | Chordata | |
Vertebrates | Gewervelden | |
Class: | Mammalia | |
Mammals | Zoogdieren | |
Order: | Cetacea | |
Whales, Dolphins and Porpoises | Walvisachtigen | |
Suborder: | Odontoceti | |
Toothed Whales | Tandwalvissen | |
Superfamily: | Delphinoidea | |
Toothed Whales | Tandwalvissen | |
Family: | Delphinidae | |
Oceanic Dolphins | Dolfijnen | |
Genus: | Globicephala | |
Pilot Whales | Grienden | |
Species: | Globicephala macrorhynchus | |
Short-finned Pilot Whale | Indische Griend |