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Scientists Capture Video of Female Sperm Whales Working Together During Birth to Protect Calf
Scientists filmed the first recorded birth assistance in non-primates, with multiple adult females helping a mother sperm whale and her newborn, marking a rare event among 93 cetacean species.
- On July 8, 2023, Project CETI researchers near Dominica filmed a 19-year-old female Sperm whale named Rounder giving birth, documenting a pod of 11 whales working together to support the mother and newborn.
- Scientists observed the pod assisting Rounder, providing support to prevent the 13 ft newborn from sinking—the first evidence of birth assistance in non-Primates, according to Project CETI member Shane Gero.
- Researchers wrote that adults were "squeezing the newborn's body between theirs, touching it with their heads," while the study in Scientific Reports noted significant changes in "vocal style" during key events.
- Out of 93 known cetacean species, only nine have ever been observed giving birth in the wild, and this remarkable behavior dates back more than 36 million years.
- The newborn was spotted with Accra and Aurora last year, showing the calf survived its first year; as they grow, young whales become the center of the pod's social unit with others helping with babysitting.
29 Articles
29 Articles
Whales exhibit behaviors at birth that are typically seen in humans. This suggests that they are far more “human” and intelligent than previously thought. This is the conclusion of a group of researchers who ...
Whale filmed giving birth, with a little help from her friends
Read: 3 min Scientists have managed to film a spectacular event rarely witnessed by humans: a sperm whale giving birth while other females worked together to support the mother and her newborn. A team from Project CETI, an international effort seeking to understand how whales communicate, were in a boat near a pod of 11 whales off the coast of the Caribbean island of Dominica on July 8, 2023. A 19-year-old female named Rounder was surrounded by …
Mundo, 29 de mar 2026 (ATB Digital).- Observing the delivery of a sperm whale in the wild is an exceptional event and has a community component.The whole group gathers around the female, emits different vocalizations and, once the calf is born, they take care of taking her out of the water to put her on her loins. This chronology of the facts is described and studied in two researches, one published in Scientific Reports and the other in Science…
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