GOLD COAST, Australia — September 17, 2026 — Scientists have documented what appears to be a humpback whale mother staying with her stillborn calf in a rare display of post-mortem attentive behavior.
The footage, recorded last year off Australia’s Gold Coast and newly published in research, shows a female humpback repeatedly returning to the motionless newborn on the seafloor. She gently touched the calf with her head and pectoral fin and rested beside it eye-to-eye for more than an hour.
Researchers from Griffith University and the Sea World Foundation say this is the first detailed scientific description of such behavior in humpback whales. While similar care-giving toward deceased young has been observed more often in toothed whales and dolphins, it has been rarely recorded in baleen whales like humpbacks.
“These observed behaviours were consistent with care-giving or nurturing actions and post-mortem attentive responses documented in socially complex mammals,” the research team noted. They caution that the actions could represent grief, strong maternal attachment, confusion, or instinctive caregiving — or a combination of these.
The mother did not attempt to lift the calf to the surface, which researchers interpret as a possible sign she recognized the calf was no longer alive shortly after the stillbirth.
Public reports later suggested two adult humpbacks remained in the area for up to two days, though scientists could not confirm they were the same individuals.
The study adds to growing evidence that whales may experience complex emotional responses. It also highlights the challenges whale calves face in the early moments of life.
Shivam Das News will continue following developments in marine mammal research as new findings emerge.
