Social Behavior
Small groups of 5-10 Pilot Whale may be seen off the coast of New
England especially in the fall. Larger groups of up to 30 individuals
are common. The pods contain females and their female and male
offspring. Both females and males stay with their mother’s pod for life.
The males leave only to join another pod temporarily to mate and then
returning to the natal pod. This is most unusual behavior for mammals.
Range
The Long-finned Pilot Whale is divided into two populations. The one
most concerned with the North East is the larger population It inhabits
the North Atlantic Ocean, in a band from South Carolina in the United
States across to the Azores and Morocco at its southern edge and from
Newfoundland to Greenland, Iceland, and northern Norway at its northern
limit. This population is estimated at 778,000 individuals. “ (Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pilot_whale )
The Short-finned Pilot Whale prefers warmer waters and in the Atlantic
overlaps with the Long-finned Pilot Whale. It is also found in the
Pacific and Indian Oceans.
Feeding
Both species of Pilot Whale primarily eat squid and follow the migration
of the squid from the edge of the continental shelf to shallower water
in the fall. They also eat various species of fish.
Off the coast of New England, we tend to see the Pilot Whale all summer
long on longer trips to the continental shelf edge south of Cape Cod and
in fall when the whales migrate closer to shore we see them on
Stellwagen Bank and Jeffreys Ledge.
The Pilot Whale seems to have an unfortunate tendency to ground itself
on beaches where sometimes they can be coaxed back into the ocean at
high tide, but often perish. The author saw a beached Pilot Whale at
Quincy Bay and several on Cape Cod.
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