Rare footage of a sperm whale giving birth is offering scientists a window into the behaviour of these large, elusive mammals.
The video, taken in 2023, shows female whales from two family lines working together to support the labour during critical moments and lift the newborn calf above the water.
It’s a level of coordination that’s extremely uncommon in the animal kingdom, especially outside of primates such as monkeys and humans.
There are only a handful of sperm whale birth records from the past 60 years, and all are anecdotal or come from whaling boats.
In a study published this week in the journal Science, researchers witnessed the rare moment, analyzed drone footage and found evidence suggesting co-operation among both related and unrelated sperm whales to support newborns.
Drone footage showing baby sperm whale being born
A ‘surreal’ morning
On July 8, 2023, researchers were studying whale communication from a boat off the Caribbean island of Dominica when they noticed something unusual.
11 whales — most of them female — surfaced with their heads facing one another, thrashing and diving above and below the water.
The scientists quickly deployed drones and microphones to capture the event. The full delivery took about 30 minutes.
For hours afterward, pairs of whales held the calf above the water until it was able to swim.
“This was just really a special event,” said study co-author David Gruber with the Cetacean Translation Initiative, or Project CETI.
Drone video showing the group of sperm whales holding a newborn above the water
After observing the birth, the scientists developed software to analyze what was happening.
What stood out was how many mothers, sisters and daughters came together to support the new calf — including some that were not related. Sperm whales live in close-knit, female-led groups, and the observations show how those social bonds extend to the animals’ most significant and vulnerable moments.
“It’s amazing to think about how, when faced with this impossible challenge, these animals come together to succeed,” Canadian co-author Shane Gero, also with Project CETI, told The Associated Press.
Gero, a whale biologist and scientist in residence at Ottawa’s Carleton University, spoke with CBC Radio’s Quirks and Quarks about his “surreal” experience back in 2023.
“We had been with the whales for about an hour and they were all grouped up, the entire family together, about 11 animals. And it’s grandmothers, mothers and their daughters altogether,” he told host Bob McDonald.
“We thought they were being quiet and maybe a little bit defensive because there were pilot whales around and they have been known to harass sperm whales,” he said. “But as it turned out, about an hour after we were with them, there was this enormous gush of blood.”
He said they then saw the “beautiful, tiny, little floppy flukes of the new baby” in the water.
Quirks and Quarks9:39Whale scientist documents the birth of baby sperm whale for the first time
Soon, Gero and the other researchers watched as the calf’s mother and other whales — including its grandmother and “aunties” — lifted it out of the water on their noses.
“At first I thought that maybe she was stillborn because they were so floppy. It took us, I’d say, a few minutes to realize that no, no, she’s breathing on her own, and kicking and moving on their own.”
What’s all the chatter?
Scientists also noticed that the whales made different sounds during key moments of the birth, including slower, longer sets of clicks.
Those findings were detailed in a second report published this week by the journal Scientific Reports.
“Sperm whales talk to each other by these patterns of clicks that we call codas,” Gero said in the 2023 interview.
“It’s kind of like a Morse code system, different clicks and pauses. And it went from relatively quiet to 11 animals all talking at the same time,” he said.
The noises could have aided with communication, helping the animals sync up for the birthing effort.
Gero also suggested they may have also been celebrating the birth just like humans do.
Quirks and Quarks0:17Listen to the sperm whales’ vocalizations after the birth of a new calf
As soon as the new sperm whale calf was born, the other sperm whales in the pod family unit went from being really quiet to many of them vocalizing at the same time.
The findings, however, unearth a trove of questions: How did the group of whales form in the first place? How do the whales know to join?
Answers may take time, especially given how rare such video footage is.
But the new findings can at least partially clue us into the whales’ hidden conversations.
“I think it’s just exciting to think about the social lives of these animals,” said biologist Susan Parks of Syracuse University, who was not involved in the studies, speaking to The Associated Press.
Scientists aboard the CETI vessel watch with jubilation just born sperm whale
