Do whales care for their young?
The bond between the mother and calf is a special facet of behaviour which follows a similar pattern across all cetacean species. At birth the mother will assist its calf, usually born tail first, to the surface to gain its first breath. During this time the mother may be attended by others (usually nonpregnant females), sometimes referred to as ‘aunts’, and these have been observed assisting the mother in taking the young to the surface. There are even some accounts of these aunts helping the mother herself if she is in difficulty. These assisting actions take the form of the individual being supported from underneath by one or more others, which then swim to the surface. An attending female has been seen to actually bite through the umbilical cord of a captive Dusky dolphin during birth of her young, but usually the mother does this herself. Most of these observations have been made on captive animals and it is not clear the extent to which they occur in the wild. Throughout the earl
The bond between the mother and calf is a special facet of behaviour which follows a similar pattern across all cetacean species. At birth the mother will assist its calf, usually born tail first, to the surface to gain its first breath. During this time the mother may be attended by others (usually nonpregnant females), sometimes referred to as ‘aunts’, and these have been observed assisting the mother in taking the young to the surface. There are even some accounts of these aunts helping the mother herself if she is in difficulty. These assisting actions take the form of the individual being supported from underneath by one or more others, which then swim to the surface. An attending female has been seen to actually bite through the umbilical cord of a captive Dusky dolphin during birth of her young, but usually the mother does this herself. Most of these observations have been made on captive animals and it is not clear the extent to which they occur in the wild. Throughout the earl
