Dolphin Reproduction
and Nursing

Dolphins, like almost all mammals, give birth to live young, and nurse them with mammary glands, though it boggles the mind to imagine nursing underwater. But the birth of a dolphin starts long before his babyhood; it starts with how Mom and Dad first met.

Dolphin Love: Mating

Most of what we know about dolphin reproduction was observed in captivity, which one might agree is not necessarily normal behavior. But what we have determined is that dolphins are most likely to mate during the spring, with male-female courtship ritual playing a large part in dolphin dating.

When copulating, the male dolphin nudges the female from behind with his sex organ for several minutes, and then mounts her from behind. After this, despite rumors about prehensile penises and other frightening-yet-fascinating misconceptions, dolphin mating is roughly as ordinary as any other mammalian mating.

Dolphins are among the most sexual of animals, and are not monogamous. When aroused, a dolphin male may mate several times an hour, often with the same female but not always. But even though the male may play and then swim away, female dolphins can usually depend on their pods to help protect the baby dolphin.

Dolphin OB/GYN: Where does it happen?

Humans and other land mammals may have a messy birth, but it’s generally not hard to find a reasonably private place to do it. Dolphins, on the other hand, often live in a three-dimensional world filled with dangers, including the sharks with their legendary sense of smell. And of course, blood and other birth fluids will draw predators. So how do mother dolphins keep themselves and their babies safe?

After eleven or twelve months, depending on the species, a pregnant dolphin gives birth. Dolphins are among the only animals that have assisted birthing; when a dolphin is giving birth, she’s often assisted by another female dolphin who acts as midwife. Birth, just like in humans, can happen anywhere. When it does happen, the mother’s pod will surround her protectively while she’s in labor, waiting to fend off any predators who may be thinking about a quick and easy meal. No free lunches from cetaceans!

It’s A Cetacean! Dolphin Babies

Baby dolphins are born tail-first and are usually single births (with the exception of a few smaller dolphin species which tend to have twins). Sometimes the mother dolphin has been reported to help the baby reach the surface of the water by swimming beneath it and gently lifting upward; this may be normal dolphin play behavior, or it may actually be genuine maternal concern for the baby.

Babies generally eat first thing, finding the mammary glands located in sacs toward the mother’s rear. In dolphins born in captivity, nursing continues for as long as twelve to eighteen months, though this may not be reflective of the wild. Babies must eat quickly, as they need to be able to get back up to the surface in order to breathe, and don’t really have the equipment of most mammals for suckling. So instead of dolphin babies sucking to stimulate milk flow, the dolphin mother actually has specialized muscle contractions that squirt milk into the baby’s mouth.

The baby grows very quickly on the high-fat mother’s milk, in some species doubling its weight within two weeks.