upworthy

marine biology

Nature

Here's the first ever footage of a baby sperm whale nursing from its mother

How baby sperm whales nurse has been a scientific mystery for decades.

National Geographic/YouTube

We know that mammals feed their young with milk from their own bodies, and we know that whales are mammals. But the logistics of how some whales make breastfeeding happen has been a bit of a mystery for scientists. Such has been the case with sperm whales.

Sperm whales are uniquely shaped, with humongous, block-shaped heads that house the largest brains in the animal world. Like other cetaceans, sperm whale babies rely on their mother's milk for sustenance in their first year or two. And also like other cetaceans, a sperm whale mama's nipple is inverted—it doesn't stick out from her body like many mammals, but rather is hidden inside a mammary slit.

Most whale and dolphin babies nudge the mammary slit to expose the nipple, allowing them to "suckle." A sperm whale baby's head and mouth aren't really designed for suckling in the traditional sense, obviously, as its massive nose protrudes over its much smaller lower jaw. But even in the whale sense of mom shooting milk into a baby's mouth, it's been unclear how it works for sperm whales due to their oddly shaped heads. Photos and observations have led researchers to believe that the mother whale expresses milk into the water for the baby to ingests outside of her body, but the real mechanics haven't been clearly understood.

With the proliferation of underwater photography and filmography, it may seem strange that we don't have more nursing whale evidence to examine, but because baby whales can't breathe and nurse at the same time, nursing events are usually quite short. Even being in the right place at the right time to observe a whale nursing is rare, much less capturing it on film.

A four-part documentary series from National Geographic has provided, for the first time, film footage of a sperm whale baby nursing. It shows how the baby actually inserting its lower jaw into the mother's mammary slit, and the milk—which contains ten times more fat than human milk and is the consistency of yogurt—shooting directly into the baby whale's mouth.

Sperm Whale Suckles | National Geographicwww.youtube.com

The documentary series containing this footage, "Secrets of the Whales," was conceived of by National Geographic Explorer and photographer Brian Skerry and follows the stories of five different whale species—narwhals, humpbacks, belugas, sperm whales, and orcas. It was filmed in 24 locations around the world and took three years to make. Produced by award-winning filmmaker and conservationist James Cameron (of "Titanic" and "Avatar" fame) and narrated by award-winning actress and conservationist Sigourney Weaver, the series is sure to please whale lovers and nature lovers alike.

In addition to sperm whale babies breastfeeding, the docuseries shows how beluga whales name themselves so groups can keep track of each other, how baby belugas share their moms' call signs, how 30,000 humpbacks travel together from Australia to Antarctica and use breeches to talk to each other, and how a beluga pod adopted a narwhal into their bod—apparently the first ever cross-species adoption ever recorded.

Executive Producer James Cameron called the series a "challenging, daunting project" in a SXSW Conference panel last month."It's also so important for people to understand and for this film to illuminate how these creatures think, how they feel, what their emotion is like, what their society is like," he said, "because we won't protect what we don't love."

The series premiers on streaming service Disney+ on Earth Day, April 22.

Secrets of the Whales | Official Trailer | Disney+www.youtube.com

The filmmakers hope that by sharing with people the unique identities of the whales they followed, they can inspire people to think about how these magnificent mammals can be better protected.

"It's inescapable that they're being poisoned by us, that they're being deafened by us, or their behaviors, all of their feeding strategies and mating strategies and reproductive strategies are being dismantled by all of this noise from shipping channels and military sonars and all that," Cameron said. "They're going to continue to decline. The right whales are down to about 300…We barely understand these animals, so I think we have to, as a society, we have to think about doing it better."

Indeed we do.


This article originally appeared four years ago.

From Your Site Articles
animals
Science

Bibong, Korea's last captive Indo-Pacific dolphin, has successfully been freed

Bibong had been living in an aquarium for 17 years.

Photo by Flavio Gasperini on Unsplash

Efforts to release marine mammals back into the wild are proving successful.

Dolphins are one of the most intelligent creatures on Earth, capable of more complex communication and comprehension than nearly every other species. Their intelligence is one reason humans have captured dolphins and trained them for entertainment, but it's also one reason why keeping them in captivity is seen as cruel.

According to The Korea Times, Bibong, a 23-year-old Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphin, has just been successfully released into the wild after 17 years of captivity in an aquarium in South Korea. He is the last of his species to be freed by the Korean government after being declared endangered in 2012.

The plans for Bibong's release were announced in August and Bibong has spent more than two months training to adapt to life in the wide open ocean. Bibong is one of eight dolphins that had been kept in an aquarium on Jeju Island, but the other seven were released in 2013, 2015 and 2017. According to Korea Now, Bibong was seen refusing to obey his trainer's orders during a performance last year, "possibly due to chronic stress and pressure."

This summer, Bibong was moved to a transitional facility where he could learn to communicate with other dolphins and prepare for life in the wild. An estimated 120 Indo-Pacific dolphins live off of Jeju Island, where Bibong was originally captured in 2005.

Now that he's been released, he will be monitored by the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries daily for 30 days via a tracking device attached to his fin, followed by at least five consecutive days of monitoring per month for another six months. Updates on his progress will be provided to animal rights groups, marine mammal experts and government officials, according to the Times.

Both The Korea Times and Korea Now note that a popular Netflix show, "Extraordinary Attorney Woo," helped bring the plight of the Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphin into the spotlight when the show's lead character said, "I want to see an Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphin near the coast of Jeju someday."

In August, Korea Now shared footage of Bibong as he was moved from the aquarium to the training facility where he has spent 70 days preparing for life in the wild:

Oceans Minister Cho Seung-hwan told The Korea Times that the most important thing for the dolphin is to live a healthy and happy life after it returns to the ocean.

"We will fortify marine animal protection policies to improve their well-being," Seung-hwan said. "The government will continue discussions with the aquarium industry to help a greater number of animals return to where they came from and belong."

The ministry is also hoping to release a beluga whale named Ruby from an aquarium in South Jeolla Province sometime late next year.

Efforts to save marine mammals from extinction have shown great potential for success. Humpback whales, for example, have made a comeback and have been taken off of endangered species lists after industrial whaling nearly wiped them out in the 20th century.

But even whales and dolphins that aren't in danger of extinction deserve to live freely in the wild whenever possible.

From Your Site Articles
Science

You'll never look at a sea cucumber the same way again after seeing how it eats

Super cool and slightly nightmarish.

@gunsnrosesgirl3/Twitter (BBC Earth/YouTube)

Watching sea cucumbers eat is wild.

Nature is full of wonders, from the breathtakingly beautiful to the truly terrifying. (Ever seen an anglerfish? Yikes.) But some wonders come from the most unexpected places.

For instance, the unassuming sea cucumber.

If you've ever seen a sea cucumber, you know they're not terribly exciting. I'd bet $1,000 that if you were to ask 1,000 people what animal they wish they could be, none of them would say "sea cucumber." They don't fly, they don't really swim, they don't make funny noises and they're not particularly cute. The name "cucumber" should be a clue that they basically just sit there like vegetables, a background feature adding a little shape and color to the underwater landscape. They don't even have a brain. They're just kind of there.

Or at least that's what I thought before I saw one eat.

Because pretty much all these creatures do is eat and poop, something about one of those things had to be interesting, right? As it turns out, the way sea cucumbers eat is flippin' fascinating, if not slightly nightmarish.

When it's dinner time, the cucumber opens up its mouth and extends a network of tendrils attached to "feet" out into the surrounding water. These tendrils act as hands, grabbing the plankton, algae and other tiny things in the water, and then the feet shove that organic matter into the sea cucumber's pie hole.

That sounds all well and good on paper, but it's a whole other thing to actually see it in action. I had no idea what I was in for when this video started, and now I'll never be the same.

Gaaaahhhhh. Whyyyyy? Why is it so cool and so disturbing at the same time? Why do sea cucumbers suddenly turn into strangely beautiful horror movie creatures when they get the munchies?

As it turns out, sea cucumbers really aren't as boring as they seem. They also breathe through their bums and let little fish live inside their anuses, so that's neat. Also, when they feel threatened, they literally shoot their own guts out of their butts.

Three cheers for the surprisingly bizarre sea cucumber for reminding us that there's always much more to nature than meets the eye.

From Your Site Articles
sea cucumbers
Science

Wildlife officials throw 3,000 pounds of lettuce a day into the sea to save starving manatees

Photo by geoff trodd on Unsplash

Manatees, aka "sea cows," are starving to death in Florida so officials are staging an intervention.

Manatees are one of Earth's more oddly beloved creatures. They're cute in a "so ugly they're cute" kind of way, and their bulbous, slowly meandering bodies have earned them the nickname "sea cows." They are a migratory species, and in the U.S. they congregate mainly in the waters of Florida.

Sadly, manatees are also dying at an alarming rate after only being taken off the endangered species list in 2017. During the first nine months of 2021, nearly 10% of Florida's manatee population died—more than double the five-year average. Many of those deaths were due to water quality issues impacting the growth of seagrass, one of the manatee's primary food sources.

Boat strikes, habitat loss and toxic algae blooms also threaten the species, but far too many are dying of simple starvation. According to WUSF, at least 58% of the seagrass in the northern Indian River Lagoon has been lost since 2009, and at least 96% of the Banana River's seagrass is gone. Both river habitats have long served as winter homes for manatees.

To help stave off starvation, officials with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) have staged a salad intervention of sorts. CNN reports that around 350 manatees are currently coming to a temporary field response station in Cape Canaveral to get their daily servings of romaine and butter lettuce. Since the feeding program started, it has served between 25 and 800 manatees a day.

The sea cows salad bar serves up 3,000 pounds of lettuce a day, and officials say it's helping.

"At this point in time, we have been successful. Manatees are eating the romaine," Ron Mezich of the FWC told CNN. "We are exposing [a] large amount of animals to this food source and we are making a difference." The lettuce has nutrients and digestible carbohydrates the sea cows need, he said.

The program has been funded largely through donations from the public and is slated to continue through March.

Hopefully, the FWC will see improvement in the manatee mortality numbers as a result of its efforts. As of February 11, there have already been 261 manatee deaths in the state, though most are still awaiting necropsies to determine the cause of death.

Everyone can take part in helping these gentle giants have a healthy future by following guidance for wise use of waterways, supporting legislation for wildlife protection, reducing and cleaning up pollution along beaches and waterways and encouraging leaders to take meaningful action on climate change.

Don't try to throw your own salad in the ocean to feed the manatees, though. Officials recommend leaving the lettuce to experts.

From Your Site Articles
Related Articles Around the Web
conservation
Trending Stories