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Studies Document Rare Sperm Whale Birth With Group Caregiving

Integrated audio with drone data reveal non-kin helped lift a newborn to breathe.

Image
Members of a sperm whale family near the Caribbean island of Dominica are part of a clan that's culturally distinct from others. Each clan communicates in its own dialect of click patterns, like Morse code.
The sperm whale calf swims alongside its mother.

Overview

  • Project CETI published two peer-reviewed studies on March 26 that analyze a live sperm whale birth recorded near Dominica.
  • The July 2023 event shows multiple whales surrounding the mother and taking turns raising the calf to the surface so it could breathe, which matters because newborn sperm whales sink at first.
  • The analyses combine drone video, underwater sound, decades of photo-ID records, and machine learning to map who was present and how each whale moved and interacted.
  • The team logged 31,364 clicks over more than four hours, with longer click patterns during labor and overlapping calls tied to social bonding after the birth.
  • Researchers identified the mother as Rounder within an 11-whale social unit and note this richly detailed observation remains a single documented case in a species where live births are rarely seen.