For the first time, a team has witnessed a bottlenose dolphin giving birth in the wild. Minutes after, the calf was attacked by two males
It is one of nature's cruellest stories. A helpless newborn is threatened or killed by members of its own species.
It's called infanticide and it occurs in many species, from lions to monkeys. It has rarely been observed in dolphins, but it does happen, despite their cuddly reputation.
For the first time researchers have seen a bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) give birth in the wild. This happy moment was immediately followed by an attempt on the baby dolphin's life.
The incident took place in August 2013, and is described in the journal Marine Mammal Science.
Bottlenose dolphins are the most widely dispersed species of dolphin, so it is remarkable that a wild birth had never been seen before.
That it was closely followed by an infanticide attempt was even more surprising, says Robin Perrtree of Savannah State University in Georgia, who witnessed the incident.
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