Yesterday we spent some time observing a group of males competing for primary position to mate with a female. We commonly see these kinds of groups (called "competitive groups") on the breeding area. They are always exciting to watch as there is usually lots of action as the males charge through the water and jostle for position in hot pursuit of the female. At one point, we saw the female raise her tail out of the water and hold it up for about 45 seconds. It's possible that she was not interested in mating and trying to get her genitals out of the water and away from the males. It gave us a great opportunity to get an identification photograph of the underside of her tail flukes!
