A recent study found that humpback whale mothers may experience a feeling similar to grief when their young die.
In 2025, researchers observed a female humpback whale and her companion. The female gave birth to a dead calf. The study , published in the journal "Discover Animals," described the behavior of the female humpback whale and her companion towards the dead calf. The adult female stayed close to the calf, engaging in frequent interactions and maintaining her care for it for several hours, and possibly days.
He adds: “Spending a long time with the dead whale calf, approaching it repeatedly for physical contact, as well as closely observing it, indicates that the mother whale suffered from loss and psychological stress. As researchers, we describe this behavior as postmortem anticipation behavior.”
Regarding how they monitored the female whale's behavior, Olaf explained that they used visual observation from the boat, recording various behaviors for two hours, in addition to using a phone camera and an underwater camera for filming. They then analyzed the data to describe the different behaviors observed and compared them with other studies, but this was the first documented case of a stillborn humpback whale.
Olaf adds that complex emotions are not unique to humans, but exist in many different living beings. It is likely that other creatures experience these emotions very differently from us.
A world full of emotions
Postmortem concern behavior has been documented mainly among toothed whales, but it remains largely absent from studies of baleen whales, including humpback whales.
Dolphins also exhibit corpse-care behavior after death, and this behavior accounts for more than 90% of reported cases.
Unlike toothed whale mothers who raise their dead calves to the surface, the female humpback whale in this study showed prolonged postmortem behavior and concern for her dead calf below the surface, staying close to the dead calf, maintaining eye contact and placing herself next to her calf for several hours and possibly several days.
This study highlights the need for further research into the emotional and cognitive dimensions of such behaviors in baleen whales.
The study notes that understanding how non-human animals respond to death allows for a deeper understanding of their emotional lives, social bonds, and cognitive abilities.
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