A baby dolphin is born

Holiday-makers heading to the Gold Coast’s Sea World this summer have an extra marine mammal to ooh and ahhh over: baby Dusty, a bottlenose dolphin, born to Jinx in early December and on show to visitors to the dolphin show.
GE Reports had the joyful assignment of visiting expectant mother Jinx in July, with Sea World vet Dr David Blyde demonstrating how he and the trainers examine pregnant dolphins by setting up a GE LOGIQBook ultrasound machine on a floating pontoon in the dolphins’ tranquil lagoon.

Sea World veterinarian David Blyde props the LOGIQBook ultrasound in a box to shade it from glare and then lies on the pontoon as the obedient pregnant dolphins swim in and flip belly-up, awaiting the ultrasonic gel and probe. Photo by Jane Nicholls.

The dolphins are trained to slide alongside the pontoon and present their bellies for the ultrasound probe. “If we didn’t have them trained as well as that, we’d have to physically capture them,” Blyde explained at the time. “But instead, it’s very stress-free for the animal, and stress-free for us.”

An ultrasound scan showing Jinx’s calf, about eight months into her pregnancy. Blyde uses the ultrasound to estimate due dates and check the dolphins’ pregnancies are progressing normally.

The scan showed Blyde that all was going well with Jinx’s first pregnancy, and gave him the ability to estimate her due date as late November. Like many first-time mothers, Jinx went a little over that date. She went into labour early on Wednesday, December 7, and “had her calf around 10am … it was a textbook delivery, which makes my life easy,” says Blyde. “It was reasonably quick.”

“Textbook delivery” for dolphins means that the calf comes out fluke first, which is just what baby dolphin Dusty did. This is the first calf for Jinx, who’s 11 years old. “She’s been going pretty well for a first-time mum,” says Blyde. “I’ve been impressed by the way she’s been looking after him. She took a little while to get it all together, which you’d expect from a first-time mother, but it’s all good. They’ll be in a pool by themselves for at least four weeks, and then we may start adding some others in there, but there’s no rush to do that.”

Blyde and the dolphin trainers were around the pool watching the birth of the keenly anticipated calf, but they don’t take a hands-on approach unless they need to, so Dusty’s birth weight of around 12kg is just an estimate. “He wasn’t big and he wasn’t tiny,” says Blyde. Now, “he’s swimming around beside her, suckling properly and growing pretty quickly.”

And by mid-2017, Sea World will be setting up an aquatic creche: a couple of playmates will join Dusty, with dolphins Gemma and Sunnie due in May and June respectively.  

In the meantime, Blyde and the trainers will be setting up the ultrasound on the lagoon pontoon for regular obstetric examinations, along with buckets full of fish for the obedient expectant mothers.