Whale Behaviors

Spyhop or Head Rise The whale raises its head slowly and vertically out of the water. Whales might use this behavior to see above the water’s surface!

Tail Breach or Peduncle Slap Jumping tail-first! The whale throws its tail out of the water, often landing on its side or the base of its tail flukes, called the peduncle.

Chin Breach Jumping head-first! The whale throws its head out of the water and crashes down on its chin.

Full Breach The whale jumps completely out of the water, and lands with a huge splash!

Flipper slapping or Flippering On its side or on its back, a whale slaps the surface of the water with one or both of its pectoral flippers over and over.

Close-to-Boat Approach A whale or group of whales surround a boat, and curiously swim very close to it. (Can you see the whale’s eye in this picture?)

Tail Slap The whale slaps its tail once on the surface of the water, very forcefully.

Lobtail With its head underwater and its belly facing up or down, the whale raises its tail and slaps the surface of the water many times.

Spout or Blow When the whale is breathing at the surface of the water, its exhalation (blowing air out) creates a tall cloud. A whale’s spout is not water!

Open-mouth Feeding When a whale is feeding at the surface of the water, it expands its throat and fills its wide-open mouth with water and small fish. (Can you see this whale’s baleen?)

Group Feeding A whole group of whales can feed at the surface together. They help each other to trap fish in a giant ball of food by blowing bubbles underwater.

Kick Feeding Sometimes whales use their powerful tail flukes to help them feed. They hit the water with their flukes to scare or stun fish. Then they dive underwater and swallow the fish whole!

Fluking Dive Before they can go on a deep dive, many whale species have to arch their backs and lift their large tail flukes out of the water. When a humpback whale does this, it shows the unique pattern on the underside of its flukes!

Logging Whales rest or sleep by floating horizontally at the surface of the water. They need to keep breathing, but they stop using their tail flukes or flippers to swim along.

Pod Toothed whales – like these Atlantic White-sided Dolphins – swim and travel in social groups, called pods. Pods often include individuals that are related, like families.

Dolphin Spyhop Dolphins and other toothed whales also spyhop by raising their heads above the surface of the water.

Leaping or Porpoising To swim quickly, dolphins and porpoises can jump completely out of the water, dive back in, swim ahead, and then leap out again, over and over.