Scientists film whale giving birth while other whales wor...

What’s Happening

Breaking it down: Female named Rounder surrounded by family members when about to give birth to her second calf Scientists have managed to film a sperm whale giving birth while other female whales worked together to support the mother and her newborn.

A team from Project Ceti, an international effort seeking to understand how whales communicate, was in a boat near a pod of 11 whales off the coast of the Caribbean island of Dominica on 8 July 2023. a href=” The birth lasted 34 minutes from their tails emerging from the water to the calf being born. (and honestly, same)

Photograph: AP View image in fullscreen The birth lasted 34 minutes from their tails emerging from the water to the calf being born.

The Details

Photograph: AP Whales Scientists film whale giving birth while other whales work together to help her Female named Rounder surrounded when about to give birth to her second calf Agence France-Press Fri 27 Mar 2026 12. 13 EDT Last modified on Fri 27 Mar 2026 14.

31 EDT Prefer the Guardian on Google Scientists have managed to film a sperm whale giving birth while other female whales worked together to support the mother and her newborn. A 19-year-old female named Rounder was surrounded and others as she was about to give birth to her second calf.

Why This Matters

Over nearly five and a half hours, the scientists documented the group’s behaviour, watching them from the boat, filming them with drones and recording the sounds underneath the waves. The data they collected, which was Thursday in the journals Scientific Reports and Science, represents an exceptional rarity in the history of science. Out of 93 species of cetaceans – a group that includes whales, dolphins and porpoises – only nine have ever been observed giving birth in the wild.

International observers are watching how this situation develops.

Key Takeaways

• Rarer still was that whales not related to the mother were helping out.
• ” The birth lasted 34 minutes, from their tails emerging from the water to the calf being born.

The Bottom Line

It is fascinating to see the intergenerational support from the grandmother to her labouring daughter, and the support from the other, unrelated females. ” The birth lasted 34 minutes, from their tails emerging from the water to the calf being born.

Are you here for this or nah?