Humpback Mother's Vigil Beside Stillborn Calf a First

Researchers have documented the first case of a humpback whale mother lingering beside her stillborn calf for hours and possibly days off Australia's Gold Coast.

On the morning of 17 July 2025, researchers from Griffith University and Sea World Foundation spotted two adult humpback whales milling slowly at Palm Beach reef, about one kilometre off the southern Gold Coast. The larger female, presumed to be the mother, surfaced after short dives in nearly the same spot each time, showing no signs of travel or aggression. Rescue boat captain Andrew Mulville, who witnessed the encounter, said he first thought two whales were simply resting until he worked out what was actually happening. According to ScienceDaily, the mother stayed near her deceased calf for several hours and may have remained with it for days.

The observation, published in the journal Discover Animals, is described by both outlets as the first scientific documentation of post-mortem attendance by a humpback whale. Dr. Olaf Meynecke of Griffith University's Whales and Climate Research Program told ScienceDaily that attentive behavior toward dead individuals has been recorded mainly in toothed whales and delphinids, with published observations in baleen whales like humpbacks remaining far less common. Unlike toothed whale mothers that lift dead calves to the surface, this mother showed prolonged attention beneath the surface, maintaining eye contact and positioning herself beside the calf. A review cited by bioengineer.org found dolphins alone account for more than 90 percent of reported death-related incidents in aquatic mammals.

bioengineer.org reports that underwater footage captured the sequence in detail: at about 08:30 the amniotic membrane drifted to the surface, indicating the birth had occurred minutes earlier, and by 08:45 a small calf of under four metres lay motionless on the sandy seafloor. The mother nudged the body with her head and pectoral fin and at times rested motionless, eye to eye, for at least a minute at a stretch. On the following two days, land-based surveys from Burleigh Heads and public reports placed two adult whales in the same area, suggesting attendance continued for days. A fluke photo submitted to the Happy Whale platform produced no matches, hinting she may have been a young adult new to these waters.

The mother made no attempt to raise the stillborn to the surface; the researchers suggest she may have recognised the calf was dead or that its position on the seafloor made lifting impractical. bioengineer.org notes that newborn baleen whales have little blubber and tend to sink soon after death, meaning such vigils may be far more common than the record shows simply because they go unseen. Interpreting the behaviour as grief remains scientifically delicate, though humpbacks possess spindle neurons associated with social awareness and emotional processing.