A birth of an endangered sperm whale was captured for the first time. Because the calf was precious, 10 females immediately pushed it above the water to prevent drowning and protect it from predators. It is definitive evidence that whales practice communal care.
Researchers with the Cetacean Translation Initiative (CETI) said on the 27th in the international journal Science, "Off Dominica in the Caribbean of the North Atlantic, we filmed for the first time the birth of a sperm whale and the way its companions cared for the newborn calf."
CETI is an international research project that deciphers whale sounds with artificial intelligence (AI). Its name imitates SETI, the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. The study was led by David Gruber, a professor at City University of New York, and Daniela Rus, director of the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
◇Other family females also help with the birth
In July 2023, the team found 11 females from two families that usually lived apart gathered near the surface. A drone showed the whales clustering around one individual. In a moment, blood spread across the surface. At first they thought the female in the middle of the group had been attacked by a companion, but then a small tail popped out of the water. It was the first moment the birth of a sperm whale had ever been filmed.
The birth of the sperm whale lasted 34 minutes. The researchers documented the birth and the immediate communal rearing that followed. In drone footage, CETI researchers marked each whale differently and used AI to analyze directions of movement and roles. This revealed behaviors where whales pushed the newborn calf to the surface to help it take its first breath and protected it from other predators.
As soon as the calf was born, female whales gathered around and took turns buoying the calf to the surface so it could breathe. Until the tail flukes fully unfurl, the calf does not gain buoyancy for several hours. In the meantime, the females kept the calf from sinking and drowning. Eighteen minutes after birth, when false killer whales appeared, the female sperm whales also showed defensive behavior.
The team said this is the first time in a non-primate animal that care for a companion's newborn has been observed. Shane Gero, a co-communicating author and adjunct professor at Carleton University in Canada, said, "Sperm whale society is led by females, and knowledge is passed across generations and shared among females," adding, "It is truly fascinating to see grandmothers helping daughters give birth to grandchildren, and unrelated females helping as well."
◇They are also decoding the meaning in whale sounds
Sperm whales are large whales that reach 15 meters in length and 50 tons in weight. Among toothed whales, which bite prey with teeth like orcas and dolphins, they are the largest. Despite their enormous size, they were powerless before humans. Indiscriminate overhunting to obtain ambergris, used in high-end perfumes, and whale oil caused sperm whale numbers to plummet. In the 18th century more than 1.1 million lived worldwide, but as commercial whaling took off, their numbers are estimated to have fallen to 29% by 1880.
Scientists believe that understanding group behavior and communication during birth can yield crucial information for conserving sperm whales, an endangered species. CETI researchers are already working to decipher sperm whale sounds. In 2024, a team led by MIT professor Daniela Rus reported that they recorded the sounds of sperm whales living in the Caribbean and, using AI, discovered a kind of alphabet that serves as base units.
For their core project to decode sperm whale sounds, the team also installed underwater audio recording equipment. According to a paper published the same day in Scientific Reports, a sister journal to Nature, the whales' vocal patterns changed markedly when labor began or when other whales threatened the calf. Once the birthing process ended, their vocalizations returned to normal levels. As with humans, conversations during emergencies differed from everyday exchanges.
Of course, as the authors acknowledge, because this is the first observation of a sperm whale birth, there are limits to generalizing. But scientists say that while ocean animals like whales were previously hard to approach, research is likely to progress faster now that advanced technologies such as drones, underwater microphones, and AI are in use. The team said it plans to compare vocal data with the birth footage to determine specifically which sounds are linked to particular behaviors.
References
Science (2026), DOI: https://doi.org/10.1126/science.ady9280
Scientific Reports (2026), DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-27438-3
Nature Communications (2024), DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-47221-8