Humpback whale in wild observed greiving for stillborn calf

By Stephen Beech

A humpback whale has been observed grieving for her stillborn calf.

It is the first filmed evidence that baleen whales mourn the loss of a loved one, say ecologists.

The emotional scenes of a female humpback whale, who had given birth to a presumed deceased calf and remained with it for several hours and possibly days, were observed off Australia's southern Gold Coast.

Olaf Meynecke said post-death attentive behavior had been previously documented among toothed whales and dolphins, but not baleen whales such as humpback whales.

Meynecke, of Griffith University, Australia, said: "Unlike reports of toothed whales where mothers have been observed lifting their dead calves to the surface, this humpback whale mother showed prolonged post-mortem behavior and attention towards her deceased calf under the surface.

"She remained close to the calf, maintaining eye contact and positioning herself next to her calf over several hours and maybe even days.

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"These observed behaviors were consistent with care-giving or nurturing actions and post-mortem attentive responses documented in socially complex mammals, and indicated an inherent, strong maternal attachment to the calf."

Eyewitness rescue boat Captain Andrew Mulville, of the Sea World Foundation, said: "When I actually worked out what was happening, I was totally surprised.

"At first sight, I thought it was just two whales resting on the surface, but their behavior was unusual.

"It was definitely not what I was expecting to see out at sea that day."

Meynecke said while the 2025 observation, described in the journal Discover Animals, and others involving deceased calves were "incredibly sad," they were rare and added to the limited current understanding of the cognitive and emotional dimensions of death-related responses in whales.

He added: "This case study highlights the need for continued systematic documentation of rare neonatal mortality events to better understand the cognitive, emotional, and evolutionary significance of post-mortem behavior in large whales

"Understanding how non-human animals responded to death provides insight into their emotional lives, social bonds, and cognitive capacities."