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Do whales grieve? Rare footage of humpback alongside stillborn calf suggests they might
The behaviours we observed could represent grief, but they could also reflect maternal attachment, confusion or instinctive caregiving
One day last July, a newborn humpback whale calf lay motionless on the seafloor, just a kilometre off Australia’s Gold Coast. The encounter was captured through underwater video.
For more than an hour, the mother repeatedly returned to the same spot, gently touching the calf with her head and pectoral fin and resting beside it eye-to-eye. Our new research suggests this is the first described case of a humpback whale mother caring for her deceased newborn calf.
The encounter offers a rare window into one of the least understood aspects of whale behaviour: how these highly social animals respond to death.
'Pretty emotional': Rare video shows humpback whale with stillborn calf
A female humpback whale was filmed interacting with its stillborn calf in waters off the Gold Coast last year.
Researchers say the encounter was a rare example of the species showing "grieving behaviour".
Scientists say more documentation is needed to better understand humpback whales' response to death and stress.
A video of a female humpback whale and its stillborn calf, taken near the Gold Coast, is a rare glimpse into the species' reaction to death, researchers say.
The footage, filmed in waters off Palm Beach in July last year, shows a whale interacting with its deceased calf immediately after giving birth.
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Do animals grieve? Rare footage of a mother and her calf may hold the answer
The sea was calm and the sky half-strewn with clouds on a winter’s morning at Palm Beach Reef, off the Gold Coast, when Andrew Mulville arrived by boat to check on two whales milling in the shallow water.
Members of the public had become worried that one of the humpbacks was injured or entangled, and reported their concerns to Sea World. Mulville, a whale rescue boat captain with the organisation, happened to be fishing nearby.
The whales weren’t hurt, he found, but were behaving strangely. An amniotic sack – part of a placenta – floated to the surface. Mulville dipped his GoPro underwater, and captured what researchers believe is the first detailed documentation of possible grief in a humpback whale over a stillborn calf.
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