Get a baby network to mate with your mother

Two scientists in South America have witnessed male dolphins attack a young animal of the same species, in order to force its mother to exercise early.

Baby dolphin image before the attack occurred.Photo: BBC.

Killing is common behavior in mammals, but scientists rarely see this phenomenon in dolphins and whales. Until now people have only seen gray dolphins kill their children twice, but never seen Tucuxi dolphin kill their babies.

Tucuxi dolphin (Sotalia guianensis) lives both in freshwater and saltwater. Males became aggressive with each other during the mating season, but before 2006 scientists never saw them threaten or attack young offspring of the same species.

Two experts Mariana Nery (University of Chile) and Sheila Simao (University of Rio de Janeiro Brazil) witnessed the scene of the Tucuxi male dolphin killing young children when surveying dolphins at Sepetiba Bay, Brazil in 2006. However, until this year they announced this discovery.

The mother dolphin sought to escape, but failed.Photo: BBC.

On the morning of December 5, 2006, when the sea surface was calm, the two scientists saw six adult dolphins swimming near a female and its child. Two male dolphins tried to separate the young off the mother. Female dolphins find a way to work on their children to protect them, but face the rest of the four males. They blocked the road, surrounded her mother and smashed her tail into her body.

Four meters away, the two remaining dolphins swam to the sides of the young and plunged it into the water. Then they tossed it into the air and submerged again. Just like that a few times the baby dolphin became disoriented and swam in the water. A few days later the two scientists saw their mother emerging, but did not see her child anymore.

'We believe that baby dolphins died because of the injuries that the male dolphins cause. This is the first time we have witnessed the Tucuxi dolphin hurt the young offspring of the same species. That may be intentional offensive behavior or simply an outrageous joke, but obviously the male fish wants to separate the baby dolphin from their mother , 'the research team concluded.

According to Nery and Simao, the incident shows that killing offspring is quite common in wild dolphins. In many other animals, males often kill offspring without blood to speed up the oestrus time of their mother. 'The females mated with males just a few days after losing their children. That phenomenon, with the male's sexual interest in his mother, showed that the males tried to kill the young offspring to force the mother dolphin to mate with them, " Nery said.