Soursop is an extremely congenial personality within the social unit. Even as a first time mother in 2018, she maintained a relaxed, connected and sociable disposition despite the added responsibility. This could have been due to the involvement of her mother Fruitsalad in the immediate care of her calf Ariel.

In addition to her amicable nature among members of her social group, Soursop has been exceptionally outgoing and cooperative with us ever since we met her in 2012. That year she allowed us to swim alongside her for an extended period, intentionally tempering her pace to enable human observation as she kept steady eye contact with us.

Over the years she has sustained her receptiveness to our presence and sometimes angles her path to swim close to us. As expected, she was focused primarily on her months-old calf in 2018, but the following year she warmed up to us and instigated several swim-along encounters as she traveled parallel to Ariel on the surface.

In late 2021 the social dynamic of the unit was in the process of shifting to accommodate three new calves and Soursop’s role was as yet undefined. She was still nursing Ariel, who was nearly weaned, and the mother-calf pair often swam together when the group traveled.

When we saw Soursop in 2022, the entire dynamic of Unit A had shifted after the deaths of two of the new calves from Unit A1 whom we documented in 2021. Since then, Soursop and other members of A2 have become a more tightly knit group and she has taken a more central role within the smaller subunit. We observed her assist in the caretaking of Snow Woman’s little calf and she was seen traveling in close contact with her daughter Ariel. 

Over the years, Soursop has maintained her friendly, confident demeanor and she still initiates extended swim-along encounters with members of our team.