In 2014, in French Polynesia, a female bottlenose dolphin nicknamed \u201cTha\u00efs\u201d is observed with her first calf. Two months later, a newborn male melon-headed whale, also known as a melon-headed dolphin or an electra dolphin, joins the mother-calf pair.<\/p>\n
So far, there\u2019s nothing unusual about the situation: indeed, bottlenose dolphins are known to \u201ckidnap\u201d the calves of other species, for a few hours to a few days. But the association between the mother and the young melon-headed whale would eventually last over three years until the calf was fully weaned, a situation described as \u201csurprising\u201d by Pamela Carzon, author of the study documenting this individual\u2019s story and member of the Marine Mammal Study Group (GEMM) [not to be confused with the Group for Research and Education on Marine Mammals (GREMM)]. This would be the first case of a complete adoption between two different cetacean species and only the second documented case in wild animals.<\/p>\n
Even more exceptional is the fact that the mother cared for two calves at the same time, an unusual situation for cetaceans, in which no case of living twins has ever been documented. Despite the enormous energy demand associated with nursing, \u201cwe did not observe any negative consequences for the bottlenose dolphin. Both young appeared to be in good health,\u201d confirms Pamela Carzon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In 2014, in French Polynesia, a female bottlenose dolphin nicknamed \u201cTha\u00efs\u201d is observed with her first calf. Two months later, a newborn male melon-headed whale, also known as a melon-headed dolphin or an electra dolphin, joins the mother-calf pair. So far, there\u2019s nothing unusual about the situation: indeed, bottlenose dolphins are known to \u201ckidnap\u201d the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":43952,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[617],"class_list":["post-43989","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-dolphins"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n