The Aporia
The Aporia
On a winter morning near Palm Beach Reef, off the Gold Coast in Australia, Andrew Mulville, a whale rescue boat captain with Sea World, observed two humpback whales behaving unusually. A public concern over possible injury led to his investigation, but he found no harm and instead captured rare footage of what researchers believe could be grief behavior in a humpback mother whale after her stillborn calf. The female whale repeatedly dove underwater to interact gently with the calf's body, suggesting attempts at eye contact and vocalization with an escorting companion whale.
Dr Olaf Meynecke from Griffith University’s Whales and Climate Research Program noted that this "post-mortem attentive behavior" might indicate a form of emotional response similar to grief, although not necessarily comparable to human emotions. This rare documentation offers insights into the complex social and emotional lives of humpback whales, raising questions about their capacity for experiencing profound distress following the loss of offspring.
