A video of a female humpback whale and its stillborn calf, taken near the Gold Coast, is a rare glimpse into the species' reaction to death.
According to ABC News, the mother approaches the calf several times, touching it with its head and fin, then lies still alongside the newborn's body.
The female and another "escort" whale remained with the stillborn for at least two hours.
Members of the public spotted two adult humpbacks in the same area over the next two days, although it was not confirmed if they were the same animals.
As per a study publish on Wednesday, September 16, in the Discover Animals journal the footage was recorded off the coast of southeastern Australia in July 2025.
‘Extremely rare’ to witness
Study first author Olaf Meynecke, a marine ecologist at Griffith University in Australia told Live Science, “It is extremely rare to witness. Only about 20 births of humpback whales have been observed to date and described in literature," none of which involved a stillborn calf.
Unlike the babies of toothed whales and porpoises, newborn humpback whales don't have enough blubber to float, so they sink without the help of an adult whale.
This might partly explain why scientists had not witnessed a stillbirth in this species until now, Meynecke said, as the lifeless body sinks to the seabed immediately after birth and is almost impossible to spot from a distance.
The video was taken after study co-author Andrew Mulville, who was on a private boat that morning, noticed two adult humpback whales milling about at the surface of the water.
One of the whales adopted a vertical position with its tail pointing up. Moments later, Mulville saw the remains of an amniotic membrane, the inner layer of the placental bag that envelops a fetus, floating on the water.
"She was repeatedly diving down for short times and swimming next to the calf, then resting next to it on the floor for about a minute, even moving the pectoral fin over the calf, then diving up again," Meynecke said.
This behavior lasted for at least 90 minutes and possibly days, although the researchers left the scene after about two hours of observation.
