A Pacific white-sided dolphin gave birth to an apparently healthy calf Friday at the Shedd Aquarium after coming home pregnant last year from a trip to Miami’s Seaquarium.
The birth is a rare and important one for the Shedd, where only three white-sided dolphins have given birth since the species arrived in the marine mammal Oceanarium 20 years ago. None of the births was successful.
The mother is Tique, pronounced TEE-kay, a 26-year-old who accounted for two of the previous births. She had a stillborn calf in 1995, not unusual for first-time dolphin mothers, said Ken Ramirez, Shedd vice president.
In 2003 a calf she bore weakened and died after four days when it failed to learn how to nurse. The other dolphin birth at the Shedd was a stillborn to a different first-time dolphin mother.
“This is a good healthy calf,” Ramirez said of the newest baby, whose sex has yet to be identified. He said that the little dolphin is showing signs of wanting to nurse and that its mother seems to be trying to guide it to her mammary glands, a learning that can take two or three days.
“Tique is a much more attentive and skilled mother than she was before,” Ramirez said. “The calf surfaced for its first breath soon after birth, and Mom is guiding the calf around the habitat and seems to be trying to show where the calf should go on her body to begin nursing.”
With no resident male Pacific white-sided dolphins living at the Shedd, Tique was sent a year ago to Miami Seaquarium to mate with an adult male. There are fewer than 20 Pacific white-sided dolphins in captivity in North American facilities, so a successful birth is extremely important.
“This calf must reach several milestones in its first days and months,” said Ramirez. The first is to show that mother and calf are strongly bonded, which can take a few days, he said.
Mother and calf won’t be exhibited during the critical first few days, Ramirez said. They are under 24-hour staff observation and likely to remain under observation for a few months while the calf passes through several crucial milestones, such as learning to nurse, swimming on its own and swimming with other dolphins.
