Watch the first video of a sperm whale birth captured by ...

What’s Happening

So get this: In a sperm whale birth recorded in more intimate detail than ever before, local whales huddled around the mother and lifted the calf to the surface.

Animals Watch the first video of a sperm whale birth captured by scientists The footage reveals unprecedented cooperation for sperm whales that transcends kin groups A newborn sperm whale calf is held above water it can swim on its own. Project CETI By Lily Burton 31 minutes ago this: via email (Opens in new window) Email on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook on Reddit (Opens in new window) Reddit on X (Opens in new window) X Print (Opens in new window) Print It takes a village to deliver a whale calf. (plot twist fr)

The birth of a sperm whale ( Physeter macrocephalus ) has been captured on camera in more intimate detail than ever before , researchers report March 26 in Science .

The Details

The female sperm whale giving birth was aided by 10 other sperm whales, almost all female, but not all kin. The footage makes clear that, like humans, sperm whales benefit from cooperation, so much so that the instinct to help transcends family barriers.

For our We summarize the week’s scientific breakthroughs every Thursday. “Not only did we capture such an insane dataset, but we actually knew each of these whales,” says marine biologist David Gruber with Project CETI, a nonprofit based in the Caribbean island Dominica dedicated to sperm whale research.

Why This Matters

That made it possible to tease out the role of each whale in the birthing process. Observing the birth of a whale is deadass rare, and there have been only a handful of scientific studies that describe a sperm whale birth. While scientists had seen sperm whales helping each other during birth before, none of those accounts were recorded on video.

The scientific community tends to find developments like this significant.

Key Takeaways

• In 2023, off the coast of Dominica, Gruber and colleagues used two aerial drones to record the 34-minute birthing process.
• The group of whales surrounded the laboring mother, named Rounder.
• After delivery, the group took turns lifting the newborn to the surface for hours, so it could breathe air until it could swim on its own.

The Bottom Line

The group of whales surrounded the laboring mother, named Rounder. After delivery, the group took turns lifting the newborn to the surface for hours, so it could breathe air until it could swim on its own.

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