On Friday the GVI Kenya Marine team were lucky enough to spot humpback dolphins, one of the rarer species of cetacean found on the Kenyan coast. We were travelling slowly through the busy channel at 7am when Sophie spotted the first dolphin of the new year! This was exciting enough, but as we watched it surface again we saw it was in fact 2 adult and one newborn humpback dolphin.
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| The newborn humpback dolphin was an amazing surprise for our first sighting |
This is the first newborn humpback that has been seen by GVI in at least 3 years; they usually are spotted as calves meaning a few weeks older. We named the little one Mtoto; meaning baby or child in Kiswahili!
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| Folds on its body indicate that it was only born very recently |
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| The newborn 'Mtoto', swims close to it's mother for protection |
They showed no signs of evasion and we were able to follow them long enough to get good shots of both the adults and newborn. We recognised the mother as dolphin 009, Munch, and her companion as 019, Elvis. We will keep track of this young addition to our dolphin family and keep you posted!
Photos Tobias Wigertsson
A newborn Humpback joins the family
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