First Of Its Kind Case Known To Humans: Dolphin Adopts Baby Whale, Takes Care Of It For 3 Years

You might have heard of unique friendships between animals. Like a tiger and a dog, dog and a cat, cat and a bird or something similar but have you ever heard of an animal ADOPTING another, that too from another species? Well National Geographic recently released a video of something like this happening in nature. In a first of its kind case known to humans, a bottlenose dolphin adopted a baby whale years ago and is still caring for it! The baby whale has been taking up dolphin behavior now because we are defined by the company we keep, duh.

The video explains, ¡®In 2014, researchers of French Polynesia spotted a bottle nose dolphin mother caring for an unusual looking calf. The calf was a melon headed whale, a different genus and species than the mother.'

National Geographic

The video further explains, 'Adopting is uncommon among wild mammals, with most occurring between related members of the same species. The whale orphan entered the dolphin group and stayed with the mother longer than even her biological offspring, who vanished mysteriously. It was even found nursing it at times.Female bottlenose dolphins have been known to 'steal' babies of other species for brief periods during times of conflict. In this case the mother made an enormous commitment to the orphan. During its 3 years of living with this pod of 30 dolphins, the orphan learnt several bottlenose dolphin behaviors, such as surfing.¡¯

So basically, a dolphin adopted a whale and is now slowly turning it into a dolphin. The behavior seems untoward from a mammal who already had an offspring. It wanted to raise a different kind perhaps? Dolphins are intelligent mammals and quite friendly with humans too.

Some time ago, heartbreaking pictures of a grieving Dolphin nudging its dead calf, surfaced on the Internet. The photos showed the mother swimming next to its dead baby in Australia after a member of the public alerted local environmentalists.

The calf, the group added, had died after getting tangled and stuck in a crab pot.

A research group in Western Australia said they made the choice to leave the deceased calf in the water so its mother could grieve.

¡°We will continue to monitor the pair and remove the calf when appropriate to do so. We ask the public to stay well away from the dolphin and her dead calf during this time," a member reportedly said.

Let us hope the dolphin-whale duo remain healthy and happy, because honestly, the whole situation is adorable.