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Last week’s Nature Notes Bloggers
| 1. | Shiju Sugunan | 3. | REFLECTIONS | 5. | Bark |
| 2. | Sallie (Full Time- Life) | 4. | Pat in Colorado | 6. | Cloudia Honolulu |
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I have always loved ocean life especially sea turtles and whales. My classroom always adopted a whale and followed it’s imagined path through the sea……..Not in my backyard but inspires awe in me….This is a wordy post but the video of this baby sperm whale being held up by family members so it wouldn’t drown is amazing.
Sperm Whale Size
Giving birth is a family affair – for whales, reveals new research.
Sperm whales have the largest brains of any creature on Earth. (These can weigh up to twenty pounds.) They are also highly social animals. Females travel together in groups that may include anywhere from a few to a few dozen members, and they share child-rearing duties. Male calves remain with their group until they are about fifteen years old; after that, they lead solitary lives and approach female groups only to mate.
On a bright-blue morning in July, 2023, a team of researchers took off in a catamaran from the island of Dominica in search of sperm whales. Sperm whales communicate via bursts of clicks, called codas, and the researchers—part of a project called the Cetacean Translation Initiative, or ceti—are hoping one day to decipher what the codas mean. On this particular morning, they were looking to attach an electronic tag to a whale so they could record both its clicks and its movements.
The most comprehensive footage of a sperm whale birth ever recorded has also provided the first clear evidence of cooperative birth assistance among non-primates.
The whale giving birth — known to scientists as “Rounder” — was observed alongside both her mother, Lady Oracle, and her daughter, Accra, marking the presence of three generations of females participating in the event.
Scientists say underwater audio and aerial video reveal coordinated caregiving, vocal shifts, and social cooperation dating back more than 36 million years.
The studies, published in the journals Science and Scientific Reports, document an entire sperm whale unit — both related and unrelated females from two matrilines of grandmothers, mothers, sisters, and daughters — working together to support the labor, birth, and early moments of a newborn calf.
Researchers observed coordinated lifting, physical support, and caregiving behaviors rarely witnessed in marine mammals and never before recorded in such detail.
David Gruber, founder and president of Project CETI, said: “What we’re seeing is deeply coordinated social care during one of the most vulnerable moments of life.”
When sperm-whale calves are born, weighing about a ton, they are pretty helpless. They can’t immediately swim—their flukes are bent from being cramped in the womb—and, to use the technical term, they are “negatively buoyant.” Left to their own devices, they will sink. What the footage showed is that, for the first three hours of the newborn’s life, the members of Unit A took turns keeping it afloat. At times, they nestled so close to the baby that they formed a sort of raft beneath it. At other points, they carried the calf draped over their enormous heads.
“There were several times when the newborn whale was nearly completely out of the water,” the Scientific Reports paper notes. All the members of Unit A participated in the effort to prevent the baby from drowning, but a few—including the calf’s mother and her half sister, Aurora—took leading roles. More surprisingly, the core group also included a member of the second family, Fruit Salad’s granddaughter, Ariel.
“For a long time, there has been this underlying hypothesis that the reason that sperm-whale females live as a family is the need to communally defend and raise a calf,” Shane Gero, who is Project ceti’s lead field biologist and one of the authors of both papers, told me. “But there’s never really been good evidence, scientifically speaking, of something that would count as coöperation, where there’s a cost involved between non-kin that are living together. I think this shows that, during birth events, non-kin coöperate in a way that is both costly and that requires some kind of logging of social behavior, like, You helped me last time, I’ll help you this time.”
Another finding that surprised (and touched) the researchers was that Rounder’s fifteen-year-old half brother, Allan, showed up for the birth. Allan has been separating from Unit A for several years, but, like many a human teen-ager, he seems unsure about whether he’s really ready to live on his own. Allan remained at the periphery of the group during most of the post-delivery activity, but he did eventually get close enough to touch the newborn.
“To me this shows that there’s a lasting bond between these animals—a social memory across time,” Gero said.
Earlier, members of Project ceti found that they could predict when sperm whales were likely to dive based on the sequence of codas they had exchanged. Before, during, and after the birth, the researchers were recording the interactions of Unit A via hydrophones—basically, underwater microphones. They found that the whales’ “vocal style” changed during the birth and also when a group of potentially threatening pilot whales showed up. What the sperm whales were “talking” about, however, remains to be decoded.
Gruber, who is also a distinguished professor of biology at the City University of New York (CUNY), added: “These findings fundamentally reshape how we understand whale society.”
He said observations of whale births in the wild are rare and have been recorded in less than 10% of species, making the documentation
MORE ABOUT SPERM WHALES From NOAH
Sperm whales are the largest of the toothed whales and have one of the widest global distributions of any marine mammal species. They are found in all deep oceans, from the equator to the edge of the pack ice in the Arctic and Antarctic.
They are named after the waxy substance—spermaceti—found in their heads. The spermaceti is an oil sac that helps the whales focus sound. Spermaceti was used in oil lamps, lubricants, and candles. Sperm whales were a primary target of the commercial whaling industry from 1800 to 1987, which nearly decimated all sperm whale populations. While whaling is no longer a major threat, sperm whale populations are still recovering. The sperm whale is listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act and depleted under the Marine Mammal Protection Act.
Sperm Whale Map
Population Status
Commercial whaling from 1800 to the 1980s greatly decreased sperm whale populations worldwide. The International Whaling Commission placed a moratorium on commercial whaling in 1986. The species is still recovering, and its numbers are likely increasing.
Visit the most recent stock assessment report to view population estimates for sperm whales in U.S. waters.
Appearance
Sperm whales are mostly dark grey, though some whales have white patches on the belly. They are the only living cetacean that has a single blowhole asymmetrically situated on the left side of the crown of the head. Their heads are extremely large, accounting for about one-third of their total body length. The skin just behind the head is often wrinkled. Their lower jaw is narrow and the portion of the jaw closest to the teeth is white. The interior of the mouth is often bright white as well. There are between 20 and 26 large teeth on each side of the lower jaw. The teeth in the upper jaw rarely break through the gums.
Sperm whale flippers are paddle-shaped and small compared to the size of the body, and their flukes are triangular. They have small dorsal fins that are low, thick, and usually rounded.
Behavior and Diet
Sperm whales hunt for food during deep dives that routinely reach depths of 2,000 feet and can last for 45 minutes. After long, deep dives, individuals come to the surface to breathe and recover for several minutes before initiating their next dive.
Because sperm whales spend most of their time in deep waters, their diet consists of species such as squid, sharks, skates, and fish that also occupy deep ocean waters. Sperm whales can consume about 3 to 3.5 percent of their body weight per day.
Where They Live
Sperm whales inhabit all of the world’s oceans. Their distribution is dependent on their food source and suitable conditions for breeding, and varies with the sex and age composition of the group. Sperm whale migrations are not as predictable or well understood as migrations of baleen whales. Some populations appear to have different migration patterns by life history status, with adult males making long oceanographic migrations into temperate waters and females and young staying in tropical waters year-round.
Lifespan & Reproduction
Female sperm whales reach sexual maturity around 9 years of age when they are roughly 29 feet long. At this point, growth slows and they produce a calf approximately once every five to seven years. After a 14 to 16-month gestation period, a single calf, about 13 feet long, is born. Although calves will eat solid food before one year of age, they continue to nurse for several years. Females reach their maximum length and are physically mature around 30 years old at which they measure up to 35 feet long.
For about the first 10 years of life, males are only slightly larger than females, but males continue to exhibit substantial growth until they are well into their 30s. Males reach physical maturity around 50 years and when they are approximately 52 feet long. Unlike females, puberty in males is prolonged, and may last between the ages of 10 to 20 years old. Even though males are sexually mature at this time, they often do not actively participate in breeding until their late twenties.
Most females will form lasting bonds with other females of their family, and, on average, 12 females and their young will form a social unit. While females generally stay with the same social unit in and around tropical waters their entire lives, young males will leave when they are between 4 and 21 years old and can be found in “bachelor pods,” composed of other males that are approximately the same age and size. As males get older and larger, they begin migrating toward the poles. As a result, bachelor pods become smaller and the largest males are often found alone. Large, sexually mature males that are in their late 20s or older will occasionally return to the tropical breeding areas to mate.
Threats
Vessel Strikes
Vessel strikes can injure or kill sperm whales. Few vessel strikes of sperm whales have been documented, but vessel traffic worldwide is increasing, which increases the risk of collisions. Additionally, since sperm whales spend long periods (typically up to 10 minutes) “rafting” at the surface between deep dives, they are more vulnerable to vessel strikes.
Entanglement in Fishing Gear
Sperm whales can become entangled in many different types of fishing gear, including trap lines, pots, and gillnets. Once entangled, they may swim for long distances dragging attached gear, potentially resulting in fatigue, compromised feeding ability, reduced reproductive success, severe injury, or death.
Sperm whales have also been documented to remove fish from longline gear, a behavior known as “depredation.” They do this by using their long jaw to create tension on the line, which shakes fish off the hooks. In addition, scientists think that this behavior may be learned between individuals. Depredation increases a sperm whale’s likelihood of injury or entanglement while maneuvering around boats and fishing gear.
Ocean Noise
Underwater noise pollution can interrupt the normal behavior of sperm whales, which rely on sound to communicate. As ocean noise increases from human sources, communication space decreases—the whales cannot hear each other, or discern other signals in their environment as they used to in an undisturbed ocean.
Different levels of sound can disturb activities such as feeding, migrating, and socializing. Mounting evidence from scientific research has documented that ocean noise can also cause marine mammals to change the frequency or amplitude of calls, decrease foraging behavior, become displaced from preferred habitat, or increase the level of stress hormones in their bodies, leading to other potential health issues for a whale. If loud enough, noise can cause permanent or temporary hearing loss.
Marine Debris
Sperm whales can ingest marine debris, as do many marine animals. Debris in the deep scattering layer where sperm whales feed could be mistaken for prey and incidentally ingested, leading to possible injury or death.
Changing Environmental Conditions
The effects of climate and oceanographic change on sperm whales are uncertain, but both can potentially affect habitat and food availability. Whale migration, feeding, and breeding locations for sperm whales may be influenced by factors such as ocean currents and water temperature. Increases in global temperatures are expected to have profound impacts on arctic and subarctic ecosystems, and these impacts are projected to accelerate during this century. However, the feeding range of sperm whales is likely the greatest of any species on earth, and, consequently, sperm whales are expected to be more resilient to climate change than species with more restrictive habitat preferences.
Oil Spills and Contaminants
The threat of contaminants and pollutants to sperm whales and their habitat is highly uncertain and further study is necessary to assess the effects of this threat. Little is known about the possible long-term and transgenerational effects of exposure to pollutants. Marine mammals are considered to be good indicators for concentrations of metal and pollutant accumulation in the environment due to their long lifespan and (in some cases) position near the top of marine food webs.
~RAMBLING WOODS 
I learn so much here. I love the idea of a 20-pound brain being used primarily for family support and baby-sitting duties.
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The idea of a whole whale family working together to help a newborn breathe is just extraordinary. Thank you for sharing this fascinating glimpse into whale behaviour.
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You know they winter in Hawaii and Waters and there is a count at a certain day every year like a census. What a comprehensive post you created here! And thank you for your kind visit and comment. Aloha
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Amazing post, loved it! Thanks for hosting, Michelle.
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Thank you for hosting. I am a huge, huge fan of whales and dolphins and I did read and hear about this beautiful story. So glad you wrote about it here and shared so many relevant details.
As animal communicators we do speak to all animals including whales, orcas, dolphins and even trees and plants. So yes, we can have a two way communication with all beings of this planet. I’d love to watch the TED talk and see what they have to share.
Taken the privilege of sharing two posts this time on Telepathic animal and Nature communication and an anecdote with baby bats. Part of my theme for AtoZ blogging challenge.
Happy week ahead!
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Thank you…I look forward to reading them…..Michelle
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Thank you Michelle. 🌱
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