June 01--There's a new dolphin at the Shedd Aquarium. A calf was born to resident Pacific white-sided dolphin Piquet at 12:10 a.m. Monday, aquarium officials said. The baby's sex is undetermined, but it immediately surfaced for air after the birth in the aquarium's Secluded Bay area and began "slipstreaming," swimming alongside its mother.
Both are important health indicators. "We are thrilled about the birth; however, a calf must reach several milestones in its first days and months, such as continuing to bond with its mother, learning to nurse, and later, learning to feed independently," Tim Binder, executive vice president of animal care, said in a statement. "Animal care and animal health staffs are excited and hopeful and are using the knowledge gained through previous births to help monitor and ensure mother and calf are meeting these important milestones."
Estimated at 3 feet long and 28 pounds, the calf is the second birth for Piquet, 27. At the same time of year in 2012, she gave birth to Sagu, a healthy male now on public view at the Shedd. The birth, which followed a yearlong gestation, is significant because of the opportunity it affords to learn more about this little-studied species.
Although Pacific white-sided dolphins are abundant in the wild, fewer than 20 are in captivity in accredited North American aquariums. The dolphins, smaller than the more familiar bottlenose variety, are an open-water species inhabiting primarily the northern Pacific Ocean. Shedd has kept the white-sided dolphins since it opened its Abbott Oceanarium in the early 1990s but had not had a successful birth until Piquet's in 2012. In both that pregnancy and the new one, the sire was Lii, who lives at Miami Seaquarium. The new calf will remain off public view and the Secluded Bay pool at the south end of the lakefront oceanarium will remain closed until staff deem the animals ready to safely appear before the public.
