Male Humpbacks at Woody Cape
By Lloyd Edwards
Tuesday, 4th August 2026The question we always get asked, is how do you know they were males! Well to be 100% sure, you need to see the underside of the whale.
Males have two separate openings, a genital slit below the belly and an anus near the tail. The female has a long continuous genital slit that houses the anus and the reproductive tract. Between these two openings there is hemispherical lobe, which the male does not possess. On either side of this slit there are two mammary gland slits, used when nursing the calves.
As can be seen by the attached images, we were not able to see the undersides of the whales, so how did we know? Well, after 30 years of observing these creatures, behaviour becomes all important. The males always arrive later during the Northern Migration.
They only have one thing on their minds, and that is to find a fertile female with which to reproduce. After leaving their feeding grounds in the Antarctic, it is a long journey for a short amount of pleasure! They are full of testosterone and come in pods of between 5 and 20.
They move very aggressively around the boat and make their intentions clear . . . don't mess with us! Breaching, tail, pectoral fin and head slapping are part of their body language. Even the notorious killer whales give this lot a wide berth. One just has to sit tight with the engines in neutral until they pass.
The large blows condense in the cooler air. Taken with a Nikon Z9 mirrorless, ISO 450, 155mm zoom, f/10 and 1/1600th second.
Fluke up as he heads on a deeper travelling dive. The aeolianite cliffs are a sedimentary rock formed by the lithification of wind blown sand dunes. Sand and shell grains are cemented together by calcium carbonate which originates in the ground water.
The tail flukes are used to identify individuals, very much like our fingerprints.
This guy had a white belly which extended up the flanks.
The section of coastline between Woody Cape and Cape Padrone gives this image a beautiful backdrop.
This is how they get their names. They arch their backs prior to a deeper travelling dive.
A Southern Right Whale and her calf swim slowly along the cliffs. They like this area up to Sundays River as there is no noise pollution from ships.
The calf will surface 5 times more than the female. They are nursed for around 3 months before they head south to their feeding grounds.
