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Dolphin Watch
Between the baby and the bulls
By ANN WEAVER
Article published on Thursday, June 5, 2008
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![[Image]](/content_images/060508_out-01.jpg) |
| Photo by ANN WEAVER |
| Local resident bottlenose dolphin Split nudges her newborn calf, who did not survive the night. |
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Businesses do SWOT analyses, a review of their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Such reviews usually don’t seethe with emotion.
Yet, that’s what happened over Memorial Day weekend when life took a swat at a dolphin named Split and gave us the chance to do a seaside SWOT of our own.
For many reasons, we’re expecting a bumper crop of baby bottlenose dolphins this summer. So far, so good. There’ve been four calves born as of this writing. The first ‘tiny shiny’ appeared mid-April. New to our photo-identification catalogue and in need of a name, I named its mother Genesis after Jen Noble, friend and TV producer, as the first show of strength for our bumper crop prediction.
The second tiny shiny dolphin was born to local resident J. A month old by mid-May, Juno was strong enough to swim without wobbling but still small enough to remain under considerable threat from predators and even exertion. J swims alongside Juno slowly and methodically, keeping herself between the baby and our boat.
The third was Split’s son, born over Memorial Day weekend. As the sun set that Sunday, a small shiny body launched itself to breathe and fell back into the water with a little plop. New baby! It was closely flanked by mom Split and brother Steve of Steve and the Shark fame. I watched Split raise Steve. I couldn’t wait to watch her raise another calf. How would Steve react?
Other dolphins roamed nearby. For the baby’s safety, I was most concerned about mature bulls Grin and Twin Dip. Bulls can be a real threat to calves. Luckily, they seemed focused on female Slight.
Memorial Day was beautiful. By noon, John’s Pass was packed. Thirty-two boats anchored side-by-side along a narrow sandbar like cars in the grocery store parking lot.
A wad of dolphins was strangely close to the boats. Few boaters realized they were there. It was just as well.
There were eight dolphins: adult female Split slowly milled in a small area while son Steve and young bulls Oyster, Pepto, Rippington, Riptab and Scrapefin rambled after her.
At one point, we said, “Do they have something? What’s that white thing?” Dolphins play Keep Away with seaweed and fish. Maybe it was a big white fish.
John’s Pass waters are murky. The white thing floated just under the surface, limp as a scarf in a slow current.
The macabre chronicle of Split and the Seven Dwarves was playing among the beaming boaters.
“Oh god, its Split’s baby.”
Memorial had succumbed during the night. His parchment-thin newborn skin had begun peeling off his little back. It was the stark white skin underneath that peeped through the water.
Split nudged the body with her mouth, keeping herself between the baby and the bulls. The young bulls trailed her in twos and threes. When they flanked her, she’d dip and dive, pulling the corpse with her. This went on as long as we could stand watching.
Newborn vulnerability to various threats implies various opportunities. The blandest threat was natural causes. Also known as Malthusianism from the British writer Thomas Malthus, the business of nature is to produce far more individuals than the environment can possibly sustain. Consider the millions of seeds from a single oak tree. Most seeds never become trees. They couldn’t possibly. They would cover the entire earth. But the seeds are hardly wasted. They feed countless others. This is what we mean by the web of life.
Some darker agency could’ve been at work. I eyed the glut of young bulls milling around Split and the bobbing corpse. Were they responsible, like tomcats on the farm killing kittens they find? Alternatively, these dolphins all knew each other well. Were they drawn to Split’s struggles out of curiosity or, like elephants, nurturance?
Like any good SWOT analysis, there were pros and cons to Split’s constant contact with and keeping herself between the dead baby and the bulls.
A surviving calf’s first order of business, once it masters swimming and nursing, is learning who mom is. The calf must learn to distinguish mother from all other dolphins. It must learn where to run from danger. Since dolphins’ primary sense is sound, calves first learn their mother’s signature whistle. Relative isolation from other dolphins would make this easier on the calf.
There are obvious weaknesses to a mother keeping her bouncing baby relatively separate from other dolphins. Even a little isolation increases the threat of successful predation.
It might seem weird that Split still mothered her dead baby. Such behavior is a strength when calves are injured instead of dead, helping the calf recover. As it was, Split’s single-minded mothering increased the threat of predation for her and the bulls.
Mother dolphins care for calves from 2-7 years. This takes a powerful bond that goes far beyond the reflexes of instinct. That bond was behind Split’s behavior in the following days; next week’s story will take your breath away.
If Split’s son had survived, we would’ve named him Memorial. I think we did anyway. For someone who lived just one night, he’s certainly made a lasting impression on me and maybe for his mother and brother as well.
I just hope the oak doesn’t weep.
Dr. Weaver studies wild dolphins under federal permit GA1088-1815, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Send her an e-mail at acweaver@tampabay.rr.com or visit www.dazzlingdolphins.com.
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Article published on Thursday, June 5, 2008
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