Australian whale sighting suggests ‘very uncommon’ interspecies adoption

 

 

Whale sighting in Australia hints at ‘extremely unusual’ interspecies adoption

This drone image taken just off the coast near Esperance in Australia shows a juvenile humpback swimming alongside a southern right whale that has potentially adopted the young calf. (Image credit: Jess Wohling)

This drone image taken just off the coast near Esperance in Australia shows a juvenile humpback swimming alongside a southern right whale that has potentially adopted the young calf. (Image credit: Jess Wohling)

A southern right whale (Eubalaena australis) in Australia has been spotted with a very unusual companion in tow: a juvenile humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae). Experts suspect this may be an extremely rare example of interspecies adoption, in which the adult right whale has taken on a surrogate mother role for the unrelated youngster.

Jess Wohling, a photographer based in Esperance in the state of Western Australia, captured drone footage of the unusual pair swimming along the coast off a nearby beach. But it was only when she was reviewing the footage that she realized the calf’s species did not match that of the adult it was swimming alongside.

“I was like, ‘Surely this can’t be right,'” Wohling told Australian news site ABC News(opens in new tab). “I got pretty excited.”

Wohling sent the footage to Katy Fannei, a researcher with the Australia-based Little White Whale Project, which tracks southern right whales in the area. Fannei was “blown away” by the images. “I’ve texted everyone I know,” Fannei told ABC News. “I’m friends or colleagues with a lot of whale researchers who have way more years of experience than I have, and all of them were really surprised as well.”

Fannei thinks the adult right whale may be acting as a surrogate mother to the young humpback, which would make this footage the first evidence that these two species could engage in such a relationship.

“I think it can certainly be the most likely case that it’s kind of an adoption,” Fannei said. The proximity of the adult and calf as they swim next to each other in the video is almost identical to the closeness exhibited by related mother and calf pairs when they travel together, she added.

Erich Hoyt(opens in new tab), a research fellow at Whale and Dolphin Conservation in the U.K. and author of the “Encyclopedia of Whales, Dolphins and Porpoises(opens in new tab)” (Firefly Books, 2017), told Live Science in an email that this could be an interspecies adoption. It would be “extremely unusual,” but it’s “not impossible,” he said.

Whale sighting in Australia hints at ‘extremely unusual’ interspecies adoption

Humpback calves stay with their mothers for the first  11 to 12 months of their lives. (Image credit: Shutterstock)

Hoyt added that, if this is an adoption, the most likely scenarios are that the humpback calf became separated from its mother or that its mother died before the calf had fully developed. Humpback calves normally stay with their mothers for the first 11 to 12 months of life, Hoyt said, adding that an abandoned calf “could welcome a similar size baleen whale mother for comfort.”

It’s also possible that the adult right whale is a bereaved female that recently lost her own calf, Hoyt said. If this is the case, she may have heard the distress calls of the juvenile humpback and swum over to aid the youngster, he added. However, it is unclear from the photos if the adult is a female.

Hoyt has seen examples of killer whales (Orcinus orca) engaging in this type of adoption behavior. In these cases, females took in abandoned calves from other pods and brought them into their own group, he said.

However, there may be other explanations, Hoyt said. It could be that the humpback prematurely parted with its mother and might just be seeking out other whales to follow instead, in which case the southern right whale not be not actively playing a nurturing role, he added.

Whale sighting in Australia hints at ‘extremely unusual’ interspecies adoption

A southern right whale swims in deep waters off the coast of Argentina. (Image credit: Shutterstock)

“It will be important to follow the interaction between the two individuals over time and to see if it persists,” Hoyt said.

Fannei and her colleagues are currently trying to identify the adult right whale in the footage to see if they can learn more about its parenting history and help researchers pinpoint the pair’s possible location, according to ABC News.

Past cetacean adoptions

This is not the first time that cetaceans from two separate species have formed what appears to be an adopted family bond.

In 2018, researchers based near the St. Lawrence River in Quebec, Canada, came across a juvenile narwhal (Monodon monoceros) living among beluga whales (Delphinapterus leucas), according to the Sea Watch Foundation(opens in new tab). The young narwhal was around 620 miles (1,000 kilometers) from its Arctic home, and experts think the belugas may have taken in the young narwhal after it lost its way while migrating.

And in 2013, a group of sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus) in the Azores made headlines after befriending a bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) that appeared to have spinal deformities. Experts think it was “adopted” by the massive whales after being abandoned by its own pod. The cetaceans were seen together for only a couple of days, so it is uncertain if the dolphin was able to keep up with the deep-diving sperm whales for long, according to the Sea Watch Foundation.

 

Related Posts

The Dog That Lost His Family After 9 Months Found His Way Back Home, Trying To Knock On The Door In The Hope That Everyone Could Accept It

In a heartbreaking incident, a dog who had been missing for more than 5 months returned home, only to discover no one there to greet him. The dog’s owners had given up hope of ever finding him and had moved away, leaving the dog to fend for himself. Max, …

People Keep Dumping Dogs Near His House, So He Builds Them A Special Doggie Train

Several shady owners make discreet visits to dump their unwanted dogs near his house. So the 86-year-old man has transformed his 13-acre home into a sanctuary for these scared and abandoned dogs. When this 86-year-old retiree relocated to the outskirts …

Adorable Dog Suffers From Giant Tumor For 6 Years, Owner Refuses To Take It To The Vet

After his former owners disregarded his huge salivary tumor for an incredible six years, a lovely dog is finally receiving veterinary care. According to the  Long Way Home rescue group , Jake was adored by his former family, but they did not take him …

The Last Years Of A Poor Stray Dog: A Touching Story Of Love And Compassion

Every dog deserves a good life, especially when they are going through a tough period, such as being diagnosed with a tumor. Not all animal companions are fortunate enough to grow up in a loving environment, but even in the midst of the worst storm, there …

Buried up to its neck, the dog howled at the top of its lungs, begging for help as it and its dying puppies lay underground

The puppies were buried as loose earth slid, but their mother yelled for aid at the top of her lungs. Soner Büyümez , a veterinarian working on a distant farm in Turkey, couldn’t ignore a sound in the distance earlier this week. It sounded desperate, …

She lay in the middle of the road in a desperate state of abandonment, waiting for someone to come and help

What’s a breaking heart! Poor tiny puppy was discovered napping in the middle of the road… and nearly stepped on by someone. She lay in the middle of the road in critical condition, despairing, waiting for compassionate people to come to her rescue. She …

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *