An animal giving birth in the wild is something that is hard to witness, and that is especially true for marine animals such as sperm whales. In 2023, however, researchers were able to use advanced drones to document the time before, during, and after a birth and it has taught them a lot about the social lives of these animals.

The event occurred on July 8, 2023 in the waters near Dominica in the eastern Caribbean. When the new mom was going into labor, the drone witnessed 11 whales come together to help support her through the process. There were eight adult sperm whales and three younger calves present for the birth.

What is remarkable is that the whales came from two separate matrilines that normally did not forage together. This is a strong indication that this species of animal comes together beyond direct family ties to help support mothers throughout the birthing process, and to help the new calf in the hours immediately following.

You can see some of the footage in the following video:

One of the things that the whales did just after the birth was to help the calf to the surface to breath. This species of whale has negative buoyancy for the first few hours after they are born and cannot get to the surface on their own. So, other whales would position the baby calf on their back and swim it up to the surface.

This supporting effort went on for about three hours after the birth until the calf could largely support itself with just the help of its mother and normal pod. The whales from the other matriline swam off to continue foraging normally. Joseph DelPreto is Project CETI’s Machine Learning Team Member, and he commented on the event:

“Using machine learning to track whales in the aerial videos allowed us to quantify how all of the whales in the unit interacted with each other and with the newborn. We found that the two matrilines consistently mixed together and took turns supporting the newborn, which was surprising since over the years these two groups have not usually been seen interacting during ordinary foraging.”

The video was analyzed and found that several of the whales served as the primary caregivers to the newborn in the critical hours after birth. Since these whales had all been studied in the past, the researchers knew that the most active whales were the mother, her half-sister, and a juvenile female that was not directly related to the mother or the new calf as well as an older female with no relation.

The combination of older whales and juveniles is likely essential for passing on how this activity is performed to future generations. Alaa Maalouf is Project CETI’s Robotics and Machine Learning Team Member, and commented:

“This was one of the most striking findings, because birth is such a vulnerable moment, and it is often in vulnerable moments that the true structure of social bonds becomes most visible. The fact that non-kin also helped support the calf during this period suggests that sperm whale society may be built on something more complex and deeper than close family ties alone.”

The rest of the whales stayed in the area immediately surrounding the mother and child, likely providing protection from any threats. A pod of short-finned pilot whales and some Fraser’s dolphins entered the area and expressed interest, but did not make any obvious attempts to attack or cause problems. This is likely due to the number of sperm whales in the area ready to act if necessary.

After the drones left the area, these whales were not seen again for about a year. At that point, however, the new calf was still thriving and a part of the pod, which is a very good sign. The researchers took the information they gathered and published studies in both Science and Scientific Reports.

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