As members of a scientific expedition sailed through the Caribbean near Dominica, they witnessed a rare scene involving eleven sperm whales grouped together on the water’s surface. “The animals started to get closer and closer to each other,” recounts Science. One individual seemed to be at the center of attention, as the water turned red. Was it an attack? That’s what researchers from the international Ceti project, who usually study acoustic communication in sperm whales, believed until they saw “a tiny tail coming out of the water.”
Filmed in July 2023 by two drones equipped with acoustic sensors, the birth of the whale calf was described in two scientific articles published simultaneously in Science and Scientific Reports. The joyful event was documented in an unprecedented manner for several hours, highlighting the cooperative behavior of the other females present before, during, and after birthing.
Asked by Science, Seán O’Callaghan, a marine biologist specializing in sperm whales at the Atlantic Technological University, a multi-campus university located in Ireland, expressed his enthusiasm: “To capture such an event with a drone is like winning the lottery!”
Regarding the cooperative behavior, marine biologists observed that all individuals present at the time of the birth were females, but they were not all from the same family. Some were from the parturient’s family, while others were from a different family. The Swiss newspaper Le Temps also noted the sequence of events: before the birth, the females focused on the expectant mother, and immediately after the calf’s birth, the group quickly organized to support it, allowing it to breathe at the surface until it could swim.
“The fact that unrelated individuals (half of the present whales were unrelated to the mother) participate in the birth is remarkable for scientists: this suggests the importance of social reciprocity rather than a simple desire to perpetuate a genetic lineage,” explained The New York Times. While it was long believed that such cooperative behavior outside of the family context was unique to humans, scientists are increasingly observing it in primates, rodents, and now sperm whales.
