Since the beginning of the right whale calving season, 7 newborns have been observed. Although the announcement of a seventh birth is encouraging, it is unfortunately still premature to talk about a baby boom. Low birth rates have been observed in this endangered species since 2010. Each birth therefore represents a tiny step toward an eventual recovery. But many more births would be needed before we can talk about a baby boom.<\/p>\n
Since 2009, only 3 other years have been less productive, with 7 newborns in 2012, 5 in 2017 and 0 in 2018. Moreover, since 2009, an average of 15.4 births per year have been recorded. According to Florida\u2019s Fish and Wildlife Research Institute, a minimum of 16 calves is needed this season for the birth rate to translate into population growth. When the birth rate is too low, it does not compensate for the high mortality rate suffered by the population. Indeed, right whales are particularly at risk of entanglements since they feed at the surface. In 2017, 18 right whale carcasses were found in the North Atlantic, some of which died from collisions or severe entanglement. Caution must be exercised before stating that a change is necessarily significant for population growth. However, right whales still have time to surprise us since the calving season goes until March!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Since the beginning of the right whale calving season, 7 newborns have been observed. Although the announcement of a seventh birth is encouraging, it is unfortunately still premature to talk about a baby boom. Low birth rates have been observed in this endangered species since 2010. Each birth therefore represents a tiny step toward an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":41965,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[453,454,455,69,457,456],"class_list":["post-42698","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-baleine-franche-en","tag-baleine-noire-en","tag-baleineaux-en","tag-calf","tag-north-atlantic-right-whale","tag-right-whale"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n