First glimpse of sperm whale birth reveals teamwork to support newborn
Female sperm whales keep the little hatchling out of the water until it can swim on its own
CETI project
A sperm whale giving birth was attended by 10 other females from its social unit – the first time such an event has been observed in non-primates.
In July 2023, scientists who had been monitoring a group of sperm whales in the Caribbean since 2005 noticed that all 11 females in the group had gathered near the surface. By chance, the researchers had drones in the air and were able to observe and record the event.
Shortly after, a calf’s flukes began to emerge from its mother. Delivery occurred over the next half hour, during which the other females coordinated in a highly synchronized formation to protect the mother and newborn.
As soon as the calf was born, the females gathered and took turns to ensure that it was kept on the surface so that it could breathe and have time for its flukes to fully deploy. During the first few hours, newborn sperm whales do not float and cannot remain alone on the surface. Such assistance is therefore considered essential to prevent calves from drowning.
“This is the first evidence of assisted birth in non-primates,” says Shane Gero, a member of the CETI project team in New York.
He says such complex behavior was once thought to be exclusive to humans and has only recently been observed in non-human primates.
“Sperm whale society is led by strong female leadership in which knowledge is shared between generations of women,” explains Gero. “It’s fascinating to see the grandmother’s intergenerational support for her working daughter, as well as the support of other unrelated women. »
When the pilot whales arrived about 18 minutes after birth, the team observed clear defensive responses from the adult female sperm whales.
Newborn sperm whales emerge from the water after birth (bottom right) and are supported by adult females.
CETI project
“They systematically positioned at least one adult between the newborn and the pilot whales, including from below,” explains Giovanni Petri, a member of the team from Northeastern University in London. “On several occasions, the adults opened their jaws and shook their heads at the approaching pilot whales. In one case, a pilot whale slammed into the nose of the adult female closest to the hatchling at high speed. The sperm whales also changed direction when the pilot whales swam directly in front of the group.”
Researchers had deployed underwater audio recording equipment to monitor sperm whale calls as part of a separate study.
“Acoustically, what we found was striking,” says Petri. “We detected statistically significant changes in overall vocal style at key times: the onset of labor and the first interactions with pilot whales.”
These changes were well beyond the normal variations seen in the unit’s daily social activities, he said. Once the critical moments around the birth passed, the group’s vocal style returned to its base level.
The combination of acoustics and observations allowed researchers to “connect what these animals do with what they say,” says Petri.
Gero says the team has not yet been able to determine the sex of the calf. “We hope to see the newborn in the field in the coming months, at which point we will give it a name. But we know that it survived the critical first year of its life, during which calf mortality is very high.”
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