Just because it's late in the North Atlantic right whale calving season doesn't mean we're done seeing new mothers! In fact, in the past week Southeast surveyors have added four new moms to the list, including one this morning, #3260. But it gets better: we had sighted #3260 yesterday morning at 11:50 without a calf and then saw her this morning at 9:50 with a calf! That means that we can narrow down the time of her calf's birth to a 22-hour window, and with great photo-documentation of the newborn we can learn a lot about a mysterious event--right whale calving. It's extremely rare to be able to see such a freshly born calf and its interactions with its mother, so this is a very exciting event for us and for right whale research in general.

Below is a photo of one of the two newest mothers in the Southeast that we've personally seen on Aquarium surveys: #2710. Click here to search for and learn about identified whales in the North Atlantic Right Whale Catalog. Tune in for a blog (including photos!) about #3260's newborn calf from one of my teammates who witnessed it herself.




-Kelly

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