AILSA CHANG, HOST: <\/p>\n
As any parent knows, childbirth and the moments after are often a group effort, one that involves the help of family, nurses, doctors and doulas. Scientists have now gotten a rare look at the birth of another mammal, one the size of a school bus. And as NPR’s Nate Rott reports, they found that for sperm whales, it, too, can take a village.<\/p>\n
NATE ROTT, BYLINE: Shane Gero was on a boat off the coast of Dominica, tracking a group of 11 sperm whales in the Caribbean Sea when he noticed something was off.<\/p>\n
SHANE GERO: We just thought they were kind of being weird. It’s uncommon for the whole family of sperm whales to be together and not sort of be socializing. They were just laying there calmly.<\/p>\n
ROTT: Gero is a biologist with Project CETI, a nonprofit that’s using the latest technology, including AI, to study whale communication.<\/p>\n
GERO: And then suddenly, there was this gush of blood. And to be honest, I thought that predators had attacked, and I was like, oh, no, this is going to be a horrible, terrible, no good, very bad day. And then – bloop – this little head pops out and then – splash – these little floppy flukes, like this little, tiny tail.<\/p>\n
ROTT: The whole thing was being recorded visually by two overhead drones and acoustically by underwater microphones.<\/p>\n
(SOUNDBITE OF SPERM WHALES CLICKING)<\/p>\n
ROTT: That clicking you’re hearing, that’s the sound of the sperm whales talking to each other.<\/p>\n
GERO: And so that means we captured laboring and the moment that the flukes emerged from mom because whales are born, you know, backwards from humans, where the tail comes out before the head.<\/p>\n
ROTT: They recorded the delivery and what happened after the calf was born, getting an unprecedented and intimate look at what Gero says was a surprisingly coordinated and cooperative social event.<\/p>\n
GERO: The behaviors that we observed that day, the lifting, like, even unrelated animals helping the newborn.<\/p>\n
ROTT: By literally lifting the calf out of the water to breathe.<\/p>\n
GERO: And the birth attendants to the mom, right? There was support during labor.<\/p>\n
ROTT: Even an adolescent male.<\/p>\n
GERO: Who had already kind of left his family showed up for the birth that day – that was a total surprise.<\/p>\n
ROTT: How he knew to show up, they don’t know.<\/p>\n
GERO: Like, the level of the behaviors that we’re seeing in supporting the mom, in supporting the newborn, you know, reflect a complex, cooperative society that can’t just be explained by, oh, you’re related.<\/p>\n
ROTT: The social dynamics and details of the birth are the subjects of two new studies published in the journals Science and Scientific Reports. Philippa Brakes, a behavioral ecologist at the University of Exeter and a research fellow with the wildlife charity Whale and Dolphin Conservation, was not involved in either. But she says in an email that she found it particularly interesting that individuals from a normally separate social unit were assisting with the birth. Using a human analogy, she says, we all have different preferences. We like different foods. We have different backgrounds. But when it comes to helping people, most of us would respond to someone who is giving birth in the street. That’s what stood out to Gero as well.<\/p>\n
GERO: We succeed by overcoming obstacles by working together – right? – in spite of the fact that we’re different and unrelated. And that’s a pretty important message, I think, these days.<\/p>\n
ROTT: Why the other sperm whales helped and to what extent they communicated needs or instructions using those clicks we were hearing are what he hopes to study next. Nate Rott, NPR News.<\/p>\n
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)<\/p>\n
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