Hey, it's Flora Lichtenen, and you're listening to Science Friday.

You are hearing the miracle of life, sperm whale style.

You may have seen this on the news or social media.

Scientists captured the moment of a sperm whale's birth off the coast of Dominica.

But what was most surprising is that 10 other sperm whales came to help out with the delivery.

And not all of them were related to the mom. This is a

splashy finding, but it also gets to deep biological questions. Like, how much do we understand

whale culture and how should we think about altruism in the animal kingdom? Joining me now is Dr.

Shane Garrow, a whale biologist at Carlton University in Canada,

and at the Research Group Project SETI.

He's an author on the new research.

Shane, welcome to Science Friday.

Thank you for having me.

Okay, well, first of all, this is the required question after a birth.

How is baby?

Baby's doing really well. We saw them last in the fall. So we're hoping to see her.

I actually go back to Dominica next week. And I hope to see her again then.

Were you watching this birth live? Yeah, I was out on a boat. You know, over the last 20 years, I've spent thousands of

hours in the company of sperm whale families, and I know this one maybe more than many,

Unit A. We didn't know that it was going to happen. It was, it surprised us in the moment.

Yeah, what did you see, sort of set the scene for us?

It was a pretty calm day.

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