‘And then we saw the little head.’ Scientists witness rare sperm whale birth

Watch Unprecedented Footage of Sperm Whales Helping a Newborn Calf Take Its First Breaths

Unrelated animals worked with the mother and her relatives, marking the first known evidence of whales from multiple families assisting in a birth

It takes a pod: Scientists witness sperm whales collaborating on birth of newborn

Few people have been lucky enough to see a whale birth, with the last one witnessed decades ago. Now, two major papers describe a 2023 birth captured by researchers.

Scientists Capture First-Ever Detailed Footage of Sperm Whale Birth

Scientists have captured one of the most detailed recordings of a sperm whale birth ever documented, using high-tech drones and underwater audio.

A rare sperm whale birth captured how families rally around a newborn

Eleven sperm whales gathered near the surface off the coast of Dominica on the morning of July 8, 2023, and stayed there for hours. That alone was unusual. What researchers watching from a drone above them were about to record had never been documented in such detail in any cetacean. A calf was coming. What unfolded over the next several hours, captured on aerial video and underwater audio, has now been published across two separate papers: one …