Chicago aquarium gives birth to healhy calf
CHICAGO — Mauyak, a 38-year-old beluga at Chicago’s Shedd Aquarium, gave birth to a healthy calf Wednesday night in the large tank at the lakefront institution, officials said.
From the appearance of the young whale’s flukes, or tail fins, to birth was a rapid process and staffers report that mother and calf appear to be doing very well.
“We saw a very quick delivery of about 33 minutes from fluke to whale, and at 7:23 last night we were blessed with a brand new baby whale,” said Steven Aibel, the Shedd’s senior director of marine mammals, Thursday morning.
He estimated the calf to be about 5 feet long and 150 lbs., and its sex is still unknown.
The birth was Mauyak’s fourth and her first — as well as the aquarium’s — since 2012. Staffers monitoring the proceedings through glass and from above the waterline saw Mauyak’s motherhood experience shine through as she and her offspring quickly achieved all the early milestones.
“It couldn’t have been more beautifully done by Mauyak,” said Peggy Sloan, chief animal operations officer. “Just textbook.”
The first thing animal care specialists look for is the calf surfacing to take that first breath.
“That happened quickly,” Aibel said. “Mauyak sank down and helped it come up for a breath of air.”
When a calf is born its flukes take several hours to harden to the point where they’ll be effective for swimming. In that time it’s vital for the mother to shepherd its offspring.
“Is mom helping and are they bonding as a team?” Aibel said. “That happened immediately. Mom is like that little guide dog that just takes her around, and every minute, every hour, that calf is getting more efficient at swimming, more efficient at navigating.”
After that, staffers look for the placenta to pass and for nursing behaviors to begin. The placenta passed about eight hours after the birth, Aibel said, and Mauyak “was within hours presenting her mammary glands. As of this morning we are documenting a lot of successful nursing.”
The all white belugas are a cold-water species native to the arctic and sub-arctic north whose closest relative among cetaceans is the narwhal. The calves are born a darker color and gradually fade to white as they mature over about five years. They can grow up to 18 feet long and 3,500 pounds.
Mauyak, a 38-year-old beluga at Chicago’s Shedd Aquarium, gave birth to a healthy calf Wednesday night.
The Shedd’s largest beluga, a male named Aurek, is about 14 feet and 2,100 lbs. Before Wednesday’s birth, Shedd kept seven belugas in its pod, including the male Beethoven. Shedd won’t know which male is the newborn’s father until a DNA test can be done.
Some animal-rights activists contend it is cruel to keep the large mammals in the confines of an aquarium pool, while the Shedd argues it is important to educate the public about this bellwether species for climate change and to pass on knowledge gleaned from the close observation of captive animals to people helping care for them in the wild.