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Cooperation by non-kin during birth underpins sperm whale social complexity

Alaa Maalouf1,2,3, Joseph DelPreto1,2, Maxime Lucas1,4,5,6

  • 1Project CETI, New York, NY, USA, and Roseau, Dominica.

Science (New York, N.Y.)
|March 26, 2026
PubMed

We quantitatively document a sperm whale birth event, revealing collective support behaviors across kinship lines. Using high-resolution drone footage, computer vision, and multiscale network analysis, we studied the interactions within a Caribbean sperm whale unit comprising two matrilines. Our results suggest that a female family member led birth assistance and that after delivery, all individuals oriented toward and helped lift the newborn, taking turns in a coordinated, cross-kin effort. Despite historically observed foraging segregation, kinship barriers dissolved as all unit members contributed. These analyses provide evidence of birth attendance, or assistance, in a nonprimate species, a behavior long considered characteristic only of humans and their close relatives.

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