A male dolphin died shortly after being born at Brookfield Zoo on Friday, zoo officials said.
The calf surfaced, as is normal, after its 8:45 a.m. birth to 11-year-old first-time mother Noelani, said Bill Zeigler, senior vice president of collections and animal care for the Chicago Zoological Society, which manages the zoo.
“Everything was progressing normally,” Zeigler said. “But the calf, within a matter of five minutes or so, didn’t make it.”
The birth and death occurred in a holding pool out of public view behind the main show pool of the zoo’s Seven Seas Dolphin Arena.
“The staff is devastated,” he said. “Quite honestly, the bonding that goes on between these animals and the staff is greater than the bonds between most people and their pets.”
Noelani, who will be monitored closely and kept with a companion for the next several days, had been receiving daily ultrasounds during the final weeks of her roughly 101/2-month gestation, said Ziegler. Society medical personnel saw no trouble signs.
“With first-time mothers and calves in the wild, the highest loss rate is usually within the first 30 days,” Ziegler said.
Dolphin infant survival rate is about 75 percent in the wild and 86 percent in zoos and aquariums, according to marine mammal curator Rita Stacey.
A necropsy will be performed to determine the cause of the newborn’s death.
After suspending its breeding program for the rehab of the dolphinarium, the zoo’s first dolphin birth, in August 2013, resulted in a newborn female dying within a week. Two male calves born in October 2013 are doing well and are now on display at the zoo, one of them after being essentially hand-reared by Brookfield personnel when its mother did not bond with it.
Two other Brookfield dolphins are pregnant, with births expected in December or January, Ziegler said.
“Obviously we would have loved a successful birth,” he said, “but this isn’t going to change our program and we’re going to continue forward.”
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