Bottlenose dolphin born at Brookfield Zoo Chicago, and baby is ‘very strong’
The delivery went swimmingly.
Brookfield Zoo Chicago is celebrating the birth of a bottlenose dolphin for the first time in more than a decade. Allie welcomed her calf at 12:22 a.m. Saturday in one of the pools in Seven Seas, the home of the zoo’s dolphin group.
“Good job Al,” a member of their elated care team said in a zoo video of the birth, shortly after the baby reached the surface for its first breath under the guidance of Allie and Tapeko, who is affectionately known as the matriarch of the group.
Veterinarians estimate the calf weighs between 33 to 37 pounds.
“This dolphin birth is a momentous occasion for Brookfield Zoo Chicago and is our first dolphin calf in over a decade,” said Dr. Mike Adkesson, the zoo’s president and CEO, in a birth announcement. “Every birth is a remarkable learning opportunity, and the scientific information we gain benefits marine conservation efforts. We are delighted to share this news with everyone who has followed Allie’s pregnancy journey.”
The calf’s flukes emerged at around 11 p.m. Friday. After about an hour and 20 minutes of labor, the calf came out “very strong, and it’s been breathing well, and it’s developing new skills that dolphins have to develop really quickly,” Dr. Jennifer Langan, Brookfield Zoo Chicago’s senior veterinarian, said in the video.
For instance, it’s learning “where exactly along mom it has to ‘slipstream,’ so it finds a special spot next to the mom's dorsal fin so that it gets pulled along” and doesn't have to continuously swim, Langan explained.
Tapeko’s support mimics what dolphins do in the wild. It “provides the mom extra protection and a little bit of extra help to help get the calf to the surface, to help it breathe in those couple minutes where she's still having really strong contractions,” Langan noted.
The zoo’s animal care and veterinary teams are monitoring Allie and her calf around the clock for developmental milestones, and both appear healthy based on early observations, according to the birth announcement.
“The first 30 days are a critical time frame for Allie and her calf,” said Dr. Sathya Chinnadurai, Brookfield Zoo Chicago senior vice president of animal health, welfare and science, in a statement. “We’re closely monitoring behaviors and milestones to gauge the calf’s progress, like its first breath of air, bonding with its mother, growth and an increase in nursing efficiency.”
The birth comes a little more than a year after Seven Seas reopened after a $10 million renovation. As part of the project, the zoo installed new underwater rock formations and hydrophones, or underwater microphones, to record the dolphins’ vocalizations and how they interact with each other.
The other dolphins in the group will meet the calf at an appropriate time in the near future.