In July 2025, a female humpback whale gave birth to a deceased calf and remained with it for several hours, possibly even days – giving researchers a rare glimpse into the grieving behaviour of large whales.
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The research was led by Griffith University in Australia, and Sea World Foundation, with the findings published in the journal Discover Animals.
The heartbreaking scene was captured on camera off the southern Gold Coast in Queensland, Australia. First, two adult humpback whales (later identified as the mother and her escort) were observed milling on the surface – then, the mother gave birth.
“When I actually worked out what was happening, I was totally surprised,” said rescue boat captain Andrew Mulville from Sea World Foundation, who witnessed the event.
“At first sight, I thought it was just two whales resting on the surface, but their behaviour was unusual. It was definitely not what I was expecting to see out at sea that day.”
The two whales remained in the area, slowly circling and performing short dives, surfacing over and over close to their previous positions. The researchers detected vocalisations but could not determine whether they were made by the mother, the escort, or both.
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Later, a small calf was spotted lying on the seafloor, showing no visible signs of movement or breathing. The female whale was seen returning to the seafloor to the stillborn calf and interacting with it repeatedly – touching it with her head and pectoral fin and maintaining eye contact.
“She remained close to the calf, maintaining eye contact and positioning herself next to her calf over several hours and maybe even days,” said Dr Olaf Meynecke from Griffith University’s Whales and Climate Research Program.
“These observed behaviours 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.”
Over the next two days, two adult humpback whales were spotted in the same area by scientists during whale surveys and from the shore by members of the public, suggesting the whales might have remained with the calf for days.
Maternal instinct
Cetaceans (marine mammals from the order Cetacea, including whales, dolphins and porpoises) are some of the most charismatic marine species – they display highly complex behaviours, including post-mortem attentive responses, which is sometimes referred to as grieving behaviour.
Grief is difficult to demonstrate in wild animals, but it’s most often understood by scientists as caretaking behaviours towards deceased individuals – actions taken even when they place physical or energetic costs on the caregiver.
According to Dr Meynecke, post-mortem attentive behaviour in cetaceans has been mostly documented among toothed whales and delphinids (known as odontocetes), with dolphins accounting for over 90 per cent of these reported cases.
“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 behaviour and attention towards her deceased calf under the surface,” said Meynecke.
Although post-mortem attentive behaviour is considered largely absent among baleen whales, this absence might not reflect actual behavioural differences. Instead, it could be influenced by underreporting, observational bias, and ecological factors such as carcass buoyancy.
Humpback whales display evident maternal investment. Females give birth after an 11–12-month gestation period and nurse their calves throughout the winter season. They also support the young on the surface – in more than half of documented birthing events, mothers were observed lifting calves to the surface immediately post-partum.
Dr Meynecke said that while this observation in 2025 and others involving deceased calves were incredibly sad, they add to the currently limited understanding of the cognitive and emotional dimensions of death-related responses in baleen cetaceans.
“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 behaviour in large whales,” said Meynecke.
“Understanding how non-human animals respond to death provides insight into their emotional lives, social bonds, and cognitive capacities.”
Read the full findings here.
Top image: Humpbacks play and breach on the waters surface (not from the event reported in the study). Credit: Andrew Buesnel/Getty images
