Footage shows female sperm whales working together during a birth to protect the calf
Rare footage showing the birth of a sperm whale has given scientists a window into the behavior of these large, elusive mammals.
In the video, shot in 2023, female whales from two family lineages are seen working together at critical moments to support birth and lift the newborn calf above the water. This is a level of coordination that is extremely rare in the animal kingdom, especially outside of primates such as monkeys and humans.
“The group literally helps bring the calf into the world,” said Mauricio Cantor, a behavioral ecologist at Oregon State University. He had no role in the new research.
Scientists want to know how whales cooperate and socialize in the wild, but it’s difficult to study this in animals that spend most of their time underwater.
There are only a handful of records of sperm whale births from the last 60 years, and all of them are anecdotal or come from whaling boats.
A few years ago, researchers studying whale communication on a boat off the Caribbean island of Dominica noticed something strange. The 11 whales, mostly females, surfaced with their heads facing each other and began thrashing and diving above and below the water. Scientists immediately took out drones and microphones to capture the event.
Full delivery took about 30 minutes. For hours afterwards, the whale couples held the baby above the water until it started swimming.
“This was a really special event,” said study co-author David Gruber of the Cetacean Translation Initiative, or CETI Project.
Scientists have developed software to analyze exactly what is happening after observing birth. They recorded images and sounds in two studies published Thursday in the journal Scientific Reports And Science.
What caught the researchers’ attention was that multiple mothers, sisters, and daughter whales, including non-relatives, came together to support the calf.
Sperm whales live in close-knit, female-led societies, and new observations show how these dynamics continue during the animals’ most crucial and vulnerable moments.
“It’s amazing to think about how these animals came together to succeed when faced with this impossible challenge,” said study co-author Shane Gero of Project CETI.
Scientists also noticed that whales make different sounds at key moments of birth, including slower, longer clicks. These sounds may have aided communication, helping the animals adapt to the effort of giving birth.
The findings bring to light many questions. How did the whale group form in the first place? How did they know to participate?
It’s unclear when scientists will be able to figure out the answers, especially since video footage is scarce and difficult to obtain. But new findings may give us at least a partial clue about the whales’ secret conversations.
“I think it’s exciting to think about the social lives of these animals,” said Susan Parks, a biologist at Syracuse University who was not involved in the new studies.
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