Sperm Whales Exhibit Cooperative Calf Support

Researchers from MIT's Project CETI recorded on July 8, 2023, an 11-whale group cooperatively supporting a newborn sperm whale in the Caribbean off Dominica, using drones, hydrophones, machine learning and computer vision. The team documented sustained allocare—every adult took turns keeping the calf afloat for roughly an hour—and published quantified behavioral analyses in Science Advances, suggesting cooperative birth care underpins complex sperm whale sociality.