Scientists have documented what they believe to be the first instance of a humpback whale mother caring for her deceased newborn calf. The encounter, captured through underwater video last July off Australia’s Gold Coast, showed the mother repeatedly returning to the motionless calf on the seafloor for over an hour.
During this time, the mother gently touched the calf with her head and pectoral fin and rested beside it eye-to-eye. A second adult whale, possibly an escort, also remained nearby. The mother did not attempt to lift the calf to the surface, which researchers suggest might indicate she recognised its death or was unable to move it from the seabed.
While these behaviours resemble how other species, such as elephants and some toothed whales, respond to death, researchers cannot directly measure the emotional state of whales. The observed actions could represent grief, maternal attachment, confusion, or instinctive caregiving, leading scientists to use broader terms like postmortem attentive behaviour.
The study provides insight into how baleen whales cope with death, an area where research has been scarce due to the difficulty of observing such cases. Researchers note that similar instances may have gone unnoticed previously.