Pico Island mammal records (Azores, 2025)

Summary
A one-week trip to Pico Island in July 2025 produced 14 mammal species; including 12 cetaceans seen during five days of whale-watching (on a group tour) from Lajes do Pico harbour. Highlights were a Dwarf Sperm Whale (the sixth record for the Azores) and a pod of six Pygmy Sperm Whales (one of the largest pods recorded, if not the largest). A paper by the group (Benak et al, 2025) on these Kogia sightings was published in Nov 2025. Other highlights were Sowerby’s Beaked Whale, Northern Bottlenose Whale and False Killer Whale. The endemic Azores Noctule was common in Lajes do Pico.

Paul Carter: paulcarter@pacapix.com
Posted: 2025 Sep 22. Revised 2025 Nov 19 (updated reference list)

Abbreviations: PH – Photographed. NP – Not photographed. iNat – iNaturalist. MDD – Mammal Diversity Database. MOL – Map of Life.
24-hour time is written as “hhmm” e.g. “3:49 PM” is written as “1549” or “1549h”.

Contents
a) Introduction
b) Mammal list
c) Mammal images and comments
d) RIB trip mammal sightings
e) Other fauna
f) Logistics
g) References
h) Other images

A.   Introduction

On a trip with Chi Phan and other mammal-watchers to Pico Island in the Azores, from 18 to 25 July 2025, I saw 14 mammal species (listed in Section B). The 12 cetacean species were on a mammal-watching tour (organised by Alex Meyer) on boat trips run by Espaço Talassa using 12-seater Rigid Inflatable Boats (RIBs). We did two trips daily over 20-24 July 2025; the 10 trips totaled about 30 hours at sea and covered an area of at least 400 km² immediately south of Pico Island. The mammal sightings for each RIB trip are listed in Section D.

The 12 core members of our whale-watching group did 8-10 trips each: (a) all 10 trips: Daniel Benak, Paul Carter, Jan Ebr, Ivana Ebrova, Alex Meyer, Jonathan Ben Simon, Karin Tamar, Reut Vardi and (b) 8-9 trips: Bryan Kao (not Trip 10), Valentin Moser (not Trip 1), Kristin Van Gaever (not Trip 10), Vsevolod Rudy (not Trips 5 and 10). There were also three “substitutes” who did 1-2 trips each, when others dropped out: Mor Matz (Trips 1 and 10), Chi Phan (Trip 5) and Martin Royle (Trip 10).
The skipper and guide for each RIB trip were:
Skippers: Ivan (#1, 2, 9, 10); Ines (#3, 6, 7, 8); Rodrigo (#4); Pedro (#5, 9).
Guides: Frida (#1, 2, 3, 5, 6); Becky (#4, 7, 8, 10); Filipa (#9).

A link to the paper by the group (Benak et al, 2025) was published on 18 Nov 2025.
The group trip report, when posted on mammalwatching.com by Alex Meyer, will be linked HERE.
See Section F for other trip logistics and Section F for non-fauna images. Some notes on other operators on Pico and other islands are listed on the Azores page HERE.

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B.   Mammal List

Land-based and boat-based sightings are listed separately below.

ET recorded another five species in June-Aug 2025 but not during the time we were there:

• Humpback (Megaptera novaeangliae). Seen by ET in June 2025.
• Bryde’s Whale (Balenoptera brydei)**. Seen by ET in June and August 2025.
• Blainville’s Beaked Whale (Mesoplodon densirostris). Seen by ET in June 2025.
• Sei Whale (Balaenoptera borealis). Seen by ET in July 2025 but not during15-29 July.
• Cuvier’s Beaked Whale (Zyphius cavirostris). Seen by ET in August 2025.

** ET data refers to “Balenoptera edeni”; however, the form here is now considered to be “Balenoptera brydei” (e.g. at iNaturalist). The common name for “Balenoptera edeni” is Eden’s Whale.

C.   Mammal Images and Comments

1) European Rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus).
Seen 18 July whilst driving from the airport to Lajes do Pico.

2) Azores Noctule (Nyctalus azoreum).
Common and seen daily, even at midday, in Lajes do Pico. I could see the House #10 roost from our accommodation: this roost being the one mentioned by Livet (2024). It is at 38.395109°N / 28.252219°W – House #10 on Rua Manuel Vieira Soares, and it is best viewed from that street. Valentin showed me another roost at the ET office.

3) Sperm Whale (Physeter macrocephalus).
Seen regularly on July 20, 21, 22, 24. Sightings on the 24th included a juvenile resting at surface whilst its mother was on a dive; it came within 10 m of the boat, at one point interacting/playing with a plastic bag (images below). Daniel Benak posted an excellent underwater image on iNat here.

4) Dwarf Sperm Whale (Kogia sima).
We saw one at a distance on July 23. It is a significant regional record as noted in Benak et al (submitted for publication). I had poor images (highly cropped) as shown below; better images by Daniel Benak are shown at his iNat post with comments by Pitman and others confirming the identification. The record by ET of K. breviceps on 23 July 2025 refers to this K. sima record. ET on their sightings page list it under the “Never Seen” group but on their species page they mention they had a sighting in July 2013.

5) Pygmy Sperm Whale (Kogia breviceps).
On July 21 we saw a pod of 6, including a juvenile. Pod sizes greater than six have never been reported. This was our only sighting in 5 days. iNat post. Another iNat post shows what was thought to be a dolphin but was determined to be one of the six Pygmy Sperm Whales; as commented on at that post and also on the facebook group “Cetal Fauna” here (where Daniel posted my better image and I added some images later). Lat/Long: 38.3456 / -28.3029 (acc 4 km). Daniel checked his images to confirm we had six individuals, and I did an independent exercise to identify each whale in all my images after which we cross-checked our results, with input by Ivana. He named the six as #1 to #6 (as used in the paper submitted) whilst I found it easier in my ID process to use descriptive nicknames: Hook (1), Notch (2), Minder (3), Juvenile (4), Blunt (5) and Point (6).

6) Short-finned Pilot Whale (Globicephala macrorhynchus).
We saw large groups daily over July 20-24.

7) False Killer Whale (Pseudorca crassidens).
One was seen only July 21. It breached repeatedly (none of which I captured in focus).

8) Common Dolphin (Delphinus delphis).
Seen July 20-22.

9) Striped Dolphin (Stenella coeruleoalba).
Seen only on July 20 and 24.

10) Atlantic Spotted Dolphin (Stenella frontalis).
Seen July 20,21, 23, 24. It was common and often bow-rides.

11) Risso’s Dolphin (Grampus griseus).
Seen July 20, 22, 24.

12) Common Bottlenose Dolphin (Tursiops truncatus).
Seen July 21, 22, 23. Seen with Short-finned Pilot Whales on the 23rd.

13) Sowerby’s Beaked Whale (Mesoplodon bidens).
Seen July 21, 22, 23, 24.

14) Northern Bottlenose Whale (Hyperoodon ampullatus).
Seen July 22-24.

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D.   RIB Trip Mammal Sightings

Mammal and reptile sightings for each RIB trip are listed below. Names of the skipper and guide are noted for each trip. The trip lists show the times of my photo sessions for each species photographed that RIB trip; the animals would have been seen for longer than the image time spans shown. These lists might exclude a few sightings of the more common species not photographed by me.
The sightings in bold are the first trip sightings of the species; marked for example as “Trip Sp #1”.
My six “Lifers” (first records) are also noted; marked for example as “PC Lifer #1”.
I made GPS tracklogs for all trips except Trips #1 and #5 and they show that we covered an area of at least 400 km².

RIB TRIP # 1: July 20 AM (0940-1245) – 4 mammal sp. Skipper and guide: Ivan + Frida.
0948-0953 – Sperm Whale. Trip Sp #1.
1028-1029 – Sperm Whale. Mother and calf. 
1041-1046 – Sperm Whale.
1057-1100 – Sperm Whale.
1105-1109 – Striped Dolphin. Trip Sp #2 (only seen twice in 5 days). PC Lifer #1.
1131-1151 – Short-finned Pilot Whale. Trip Sp #3.
1202-1209 – Common Dolphin. Trip Sp #4.

RIB TRIP # 2: July 20 PM (1405-1710) – 3 mammal sp. Skipper and guide: Ivan + Frida.
1436-1457 – Common Dolphin.
1615-1625 – Atlantic Spotted Dolphin. Trip Sp #5. PC Lifer #2.
1635-1646 – Risso’s Dolphin. Group of 5. Trip Sp #6.

RIB TRIP # 3: July 21 AM (0910-1215) – 5 mammal sp. Skipper and guide: Ines + Frida.
0925-0927 – Sperm Whale.
0934-0955 – Atlantic Spotted Dolphin.
1003-1020 – False Killer Whale. X1 only. Trip Sp #7. Our only sighting in 5 days.
1050-1052 – Sperm Whale.
1057-1109 – Short-finned Pilot Whale.
1112-1144 – Common Bottlenose Dolphin. Trip Sp #8.
1140-1152 – Short-finned Pilot Whale.
1157 – Loggerhead Turtle.

RIB TRIP # 4: July 21 PM (1410-1720) – 5 mammal sp. Skipper and guide: Rodrigo + Becky.
1432-1436 – Sperm Whale.
1441-1506 – Atlantic Spotted Dolphin.
1513-1517 – Sowerby’s Beaked Whale. Trip Sp #9. PC Lifer #3.
1533-1539 – Pygmy Sperm Whale. A pod of 6, including a juvenile. Pod sizes greater than six have never been reported. Our only sighting in 5 days. Trip Sp #10. PC Lifer #4. W-21-1535h.
1543-1545 – Pygmy Sperm Whale. Same pod (second time interval). iNat post. Another iNat post here was originally thought to possibly be a dolphin but was determined to be one of the Pygmy Sperm Whales. Lat/Long: 38.3456 / -28.3029 (acc 4 km).
1553-1611 – Sowerby’s Beaked Whale.
1635-1639 – Pygmy Sperm Whale. Same pod (third time interval). Wpt-1886.
1702-1708 – Common Dolphin.

RIB TRIP # 5: July 22 AM (0910-1215) – 2 mammal sp. Skipper and guide: Pedro + Frida.
0925-0939 – Northern Bottlenose Whale. Trip Sp #11. PC Lifer #5. A pod of at least six. One has a characteristic bite mark on the dorsal fin.
1000-1012 – Sowerby’s Beaked Whale.
1019 – Loggerhead Turtle.
1123-1142 – Northern Bottlenose Whale.

RIB TRIP # 6: July 22 PM (1410-1720) – 8 mammal sp. Skipper and guide: Ines + Frida.
xxxx – Common Bottlenose Dolphin. NP.
1504-1520 – Northern Bottlenose Whale. Same pod as this morning, one of them with a characteristic bite mark on the dorsal fin (image -527).
1510-1515 – Short-finned Pilot Whale.
1520-1522 – Common Dolphin.
1546-1547 – Sowerby’s Beaked Whale.
1552-1600 – Sowerby’s Beaked Whale.
1621-1630 – Risso’s Dolphin.
1647-1650 – Sperm Whale.
1659-1705 – Common Dolphin.

RIB TRIP # 7: July 23 AM (0910-xxxx) – 3 mammal sp. Skipper and guide: Ines + Becky.
0945-0947 – Northern Bottlenose Whale.
1016 – Loggerhead Turtle.
1023-1031 – Northern Bottlenose Whale.
1054-1057 – Sowerby’s Beaked Whale.
1109-1118 – Sowerby’s Beaked Whale.
1131-1147 – Atlantic Spotted Dolphin.

RIB TRIP # 8: July 23 PM (1405?-1725) – 6 mammal sp. Skipper and guide: Ines + Becky.
1427 – Loggerhead Turtle.
1434-1436 – Atlantic Spotted Dolphin.
1439-1448 – Short-finned Pilot Whale.
1444-1445 – Common Bottlenose Dolphin.
1456-1500 – Northern Bottlenose Whale. This pod of at least 8 included the one with the characteristic bite-mark on the dorsal fin.
1509-1522 – Short-finned Pilot Whale.
1510-1524 – Common Bottlenose Dolphin. With the Short-finned Pilot Whales.
1543–1556 – Atlantic Spotted Dolphin.
1614-1616 – Dwarf Sperm Whale. x1 only. Trip Sp #12. PC Lifer #6. Not previously recorded/confirmed by ET. It is a significant regional record. The iNat post by Benak is here with comments by Pitman and others confirming the identification.
1644-1645 – Atlantic Spotted Dolphin.
1703-1706 – Sowerby’s Beaked Whale.

RIB TRIP # 9: July 24 AM (0915-1215) – 6 mammal sp. Skipper and guide: Pedro + Filipa.
0931-0940 – Striped Dolphin. Second and last sighting of the trip.
0947-0954 – Atlantic Spotted Dolphin.
1000 (approx.) – Risso’s Dolphin. NP.
1012-1020 – Short-finned Pilot Whale.
1020-1021 – Atlantic Spotted Dolphin.
1103-1110 – Sperm Whale.
1127-1146 – Sowerby’s Beaked Whale.

RIB TRIP # 10: July 24 PM (1410-1500) – 3 mammal sp. Skipper and guide: Ivan + Becky.
xxxx – Atlantic Spotted Dolphin. NP.
1521-1536 – Northern Bottlenose Whale.
1550-1555 – Sperm Whale.
1601-1625 – Sperm Whale. A juvenile within meters of the boat. Daniel Benak’s excellent underwater image is posted in iNat here.

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E.   Other Fauna

Reptile, Bird and Fish lists are shown below. These are species photographed by me and do not represent full trip lists of the group or others.

Reptile Species List
Loggerhead Turtle (Caretta caretta) and Madeira Lizard (Teira dugesii).

Birds photographed on the RIB trips
Parasitic Jaeger (Stercorarius parasiticus), Cory’s Shearwater (Calonectris borealis), Bulwer’s Petrel (Bulweria bulwerii), Yellow-legged Gull (Larus michahellis), Common Tern (Sterna hirundo), Roseate Tern (Sterna dougallii).

Fish photographed on the RIB trips
Alive: Flying Fish sp (Hirundichthys?), Broadbill Swordfish (Xiphias gladius), Boarfish (Capros aper), Whalesucker (Remora australis) attached to Common Dolphin dorsal fin (image below and posted at iNat).
Dead: Atlantic Silver Hatchetfish (Argyropelecus aculeatus).
Thanks to the other team members for the fish identification; they also recorded additional species.

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F.   Logistics

Geography
Pico Island, one of nine islands comprising the Azores, is about 1650 km west of Lisbon, Portugal. The archipelago is located a triple-plate junction on the Mid-oceanic Ridge. Mount Pico is 2,351m high and clearly visible from Lajes do Pico which is the centre of whale-watching operations on the southern coast of Pico Island.

Lajes do Pico logistics (July 2025):
Flights: We flew from Lizbon to Pico Island on Azores Airlines (previously SATA Internacional). The return flight was booked with 2 PM departure; the airline later changed it to 9 AM and then four days before departure they changed it to 8 PM. It is advised that you don’t book tight connections.
Shuttle: We used ET’s shuttle-bus for airport transfers (Euro-45 per van each way). Taxis were also available at the airport.
Accommodation: Chi and I stayed in an apartment at Casa do Brasão, next door to the #10 bat roost, which was visible from our room. The rest of the group stayed at Caso do Flores.
Food: The Ancora Parque hypermarket (700m walk from the harbour) was the best place for groceries; we also used the small Spar in town. We had good meals at Baleis Café, Fonte Tavern and Retinha Restaurant. Mar Sushi Aqua was closed the day we tried but is also reported to be good.
Comms: Our Airalo e-SIM cards for Portugal worked in the Azores.

Espaço Talassa (whale-watching company)
Espaço Talassa (www.espacotalassa.com/en/) operate out of Lajes do Pico harbour on Pico Island. Depending on demand they have multiple boats on morning and afternoon trips that generally last about three hours. Our morning and afternoon tours generally started at 9 AM and 2 PM. They sometimes have evening boats as well. The smaller RIBs are 8.5 meters long and manned by a skipper and a guide with capacity for 12 passengers; there is also a larger boat.
The company has its own land-based observers on shore and the crew is in constant radio contact with them. The spotters use the Queimado watch-tower (vigia) which is one of the original towers used in the whale-hunting era (whale hunting in the Azores ended in 1987). Recent and past sightings are shown at their “Sightings and Statistics” web pages. Also see their list of cetaceans here:
They have low, medium and high season rates. The high season rates (2025) are 75 Euro each (individual) but 65 Euro each for groups of at least 4. Chartering the smaller RIB (max 12 pax) cost 620 Euro (51 euro each if 12 pax).
Information on other whale-watching operators on Pico Island and some other islands is shown here.

G.   References

• Benak D, Carter P, Ebr J, Ebrova I, Van Gaever K, Kao B, Meyer A, Rudyi V, Ben Simon J, Tamar K, Vardi R, Moser V (2025 Nov 18). Sighting of a large group of pygmy sperm whales (Kogia breviceps) and a new record of dwarf sperm whale (K. sima) in the Azores. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 105:e129. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0025315425100830.
• Bullock A (2024). Your Sustainable Whale Watching Guide to the Azores – 2024. By the Ocean Azores Foundation. https://solarbranco.com/-FOA-docs/Whale-watching.pdf
• Hall J (2024). Pico Island, the Azores, August 2024. A trip report posted 16 Sep 2024 on mammalwatching.com. Link.
• Livet, J (2024 Sep). Some notes on the Azores Noctule (Nyctalus azoreum). A report posted on mammalwatching.com.
• Ollers S (2020). Azores (Pico and Sao Miguel) – September 2020. A trip report posted on mammalwatching.com.
• Still R, Harrop H, Dias L, Stenton T (2019). Europe’s Sea Mammals Including the Azores, Madeira, the Canary Islands and Cape Verde. A Field Guide to the Whales, Dolphins, Porpoises and Seals. WILD Guides. Published by Princeton University Press. ISBN: 9780691182162

Links:

• Espaço Talassa home page: www.espacotalassa.com/en/
• Espaço Talassa list of cetaceans of the Azores: https://www.espacotalassa.com/en/cetaceans/cetacea/
• Espaço Talassa sightings and statistics web page: https://www.espacotalassa.com/en/sightings-statistics/

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H.   Other images

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