Amazing stuff!
"Humpback whale mothers may experience grief when their calves die, a rare research observation led by Griffith University and Sea World Foundation has found.
In 2025, a female humpback whale—along with an escort whale—was observed off the southern Gold Coast after giving birth to a presumed deceased calf. She remained with it for several hours and possibly even days.
Dr. Olaf Meynecke, from Griffith University's Whales and Climate Research Program, said postmortem attentive behavior in cetaceans had been documented predominantly among toothed whales and delphinids (known as odontocetes), but remained largely absent from research published on baleen whales, like humpback whales. ...
“She remained close to the calf, maintaining eye contact and positioning herself next to her calf over several hours and maybe even days. ..."
Weeping whales: stillborn humpback whale grieving documented (original news release)
These images show the stillborn calf and mother, and amniotic membrane just after the birth
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