Seeing a baby whale emerge into the world: “The start of a new one” says captain Dave’s dolphin & whale watching safari
The passengers and crew of Captain Dave’s Dolphin & Whale Watching Safari were about to witness something very bad, so they braced themselves. Instead, they experienced what the tour company called “a once in a lifetime” opportunity to watch as a newborn gray whale emerged into the world.
“Many of us thought it may be a shark or predatory event. It was the start of a new one instead of the end of life. the tour company wrote in a statement on YouTube.
“This is a first for all of us. The captain said in the video that they had never actually seen it happen.
The baby whale is lying on its mom and the two are hugging. The tour boat is about the size of the mother, which is somewhere between 40 and 50 feet.
The Gray Whale Census and Behavior Project is run by the Los Angeles chapter of the American Cetacean Society. When the giant mammals are travelling from their feeding grounds in the Chukchi and Bering Seas to the warm water lagoons in Baja California, Mexico they are tracked by the group from December through May.
It’s rare for people to get to share in the earliest moments of a young whale’s life. A whale could get to be 50, 60, 80 years old. The calf life is just beginning.
The reason for that is that gray whales calves are soft and take about 24 hours to become rigid. They have to be guided and helped along until they are able to swim forward.
And when the calf swims up toward its mother’s face to rub itself against her, Schulman-Janiger said that’s typical mammal behavior. A lot of the skin of ocean mammals is very sensitive, because they can’t smell each other. That’s why there’s a lot of tactile contact and touching going on.”
Source: https://www.npr.org/2023/01/06/1147337320/whale-birth-dana-point
When did a whale come out? A tribute to Schulman-Janiger, a resident whale of the North Pacific, who was born at the 2021 drop
The various clips are a tremendous windfall for gray whale researchers, Schulman-Janiger said, marveling that the “astounding” footage was captured at all.
“The fact that you can see the blood pool means the calf must have just come out,” she said. That isn’t something that is seen very often. In fact, I don’t know if there’s any other video footage of something like that.”
The number of eastern North Pacific gray whales was estimated by the government. The population was put at 16,450 by the figures recorded in the winter of 2021. The drop has been declared an Unusual Mortality Event.
In all of her years out in the field, Schulman-Janiger admitted she’s never witnessed an actual birth. In fact, almost exactly nine years ago to the day, she was lucky enough to spot a wrinkly newborn calf less than an hour old. She has pictures and a description.
“Killer whale mothers pay a really huge cost to take care of their sons,” says Weiss. That cost is that they have fewer offspring. They keep paying that price to keep their sons alive, even throughout their son’s life.
Michael Weiss, the research director at the Centre for Whale Research in Friday Harbor, Washington, says there is a very close social relationship between the two whales.
Killer whale whale mothers are still supporting their adult sons and that’s why they’re doing so much for their children, and why they do it so much?
Male orcas are massive, and so are their appetites. They’re also less maneuverable, which may make it harder for them to catch prey. All this means that a male like K35 needs help getting enough food.
Weiss says that his mother will often catch a salmon and bite part of it to let her son eat it. So she’s sharing a huge amount of food.”
K35 has only had one calf, and his mother has never had another. Contrast that with other females in the population.
“Some whales started reproducing at the same age around the same time,” says Weiss, “and they had daughters. They’ve produced around 3 or 4 offspring.
In fact, when a mom dies, her son usually perishes within a year or two. “We think that is largely because they’re seeing a huge reduction in the amount of food they get,” explains Weiss.
Weiss can’t think of another animal that makes this never-ending investment when it has the option of reproducing multiple times. So why would these orca moms sacrifice so much for their sons? The payoff is huge according to Weiss.
The result is that his mom would become a grandmother multiple times over. Her genes would end up in calves. She wouldn’t have to spend a lot of time raising them because they will be born into otherpods.
Source: https://www.npr.org/2023/02/09/1155460644/killer-whale-moms-are-still-supporting-their-adult-sons-and-its-costing-them
The Norwegian Orca Survey: comparing maternal strategies against the loss of extinction in a fragile population — an inspirational story told by Eve Jourdain
“It’s an amazing piece of work,” says Eve Jourdain, the director of the Norwegian Orca Survey. Jourdain, who wasn’t involved in the study, is hoping to conduct a similar research project in Norway.
“There could be direct comparisons possible across populations,” says Jourdain. Can we start to understand how important it is for the preservation of those different populations?
Weiss is worried that this maternal strategy, which has served this population well in the past, could raise their risk of extinction, as he has seen between K16 and her son.