How a Dolphin Copes With the Death of Her Calf David Kirby - TakePart
go to original March 31, 2013

Whale watchers aboard Captain Dave's Dolphin and Whale Watching Safari had an unexpected and heartbreaking encounter with a pod of bottlenose dolphins. (Dolphin Safari)

Whale watching is common off the coast of Southern California, but recently a tour group encountered something that few people ever see: the touching, almost tear-jerking sight of a female bottlenose dolphin carrying the body of her dead infant upon her back.

The boat’s captain, Dave Anderson of DolphinSafari.com, spotted the dolphin, who was apparently reluctant to separate herself from the deceased calf. “This video sends a powerful message about how much a dolphin can care, it is a window into a dolphin’s heart,” Anderson said in a statement. “We can only imagine what happened; over half of all bottlenose calves die from disease and predators before their second birthday, and since we know that the family unit in dolphin pods is the mother and calf, this is almost certainly a mother and calf pair.”

Read the rest and check out an interview with Barbara J. King, author of the book How Animals Grieve, at TakePart

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