Why did the mother whale abandon Colin?

Question

i haven't found anything online; does anyone know? it was so sad to watch the baby whale mistake the yacht for the mother. thanx

Answer 1

Maybe the mother was in distress.  Under circumstances of severe absence of food, parents will generally abandon their children and save themselves.  Penguins will lay one egg and another one 2 weeks later.  If food is plentiful they will feed both the big one and the small one.  If food is scarce they will let the younger penguin starve.  

Answer 2

Actually, they believe they've found the mother of the baby whale now, (dead). They are going to do DNA tests on the dead adult whale and 'Colin', which also turned out to be a female, to find out for sure if it's the mother.

I am totally disgusted by the way the whole thing was handled. I accept that euthanasia may have ended up being the only option, but the fact that the so-called "experts" did NOTHING to help the whale during the time they were making the long-term decisions shows what a bunch of morons they truly are. I'd like to have seen them actually try something, rather than just run around in circles saying they didn't know what to do, letting the calf starve the entire time. Common sense tells you that if you let an animal starve for days, it's going to be in a lot worse condition if you decide you want to try to save it a few days later.

There is one extremely intelligent person who wasn't listened to in the whole thing, and if he'd been listened to, at least the calf would have been fed for those few days while a long-term decision was being made, and that was Dr. Karl Kruszelnicki. At least he had the intelligence to want to try SOMETHING, while longer term decisions were being made. This is what he wanted to try:

"One of Australia's top scientists, Karl Kruszelnicki, has called on authorities to attempt a world first experiment to keep the whale alive by feeding it formula milk, refuting claims by the Gold Coast Sea World that it couldn't be done.

Dr Kruszelnicki, from Sydney University school of physics has told News.com all infant mammals, including whales, could survive for a reasonable length of time on the same formula used for human babies.

He said it would be possible for an engineer to rig up an artificial teat and feed it formula until a plan had been devised to take it back to sea.

"It's not impossible and the fact it is snuggling up to a boat is a good sign. It could be done," he said.

"And the fact it has never been tried before in the world is a good reason to do it,' he told News.com."

http://news.sbs.com.au/worldnewsaustrali...  

I totally agree with him. Trying SOMETHING, even if it may not succeed, is better than trying nothing and being guaranteed to fail.

Anyway, it's too late now, and the calf is dead, and out of the "expert's" clutches, although they did even manage to botch the whole euthanasia thing. It certainly wasn’t a quick and painless death. They gave it some needles and dragged it across the bay with a rope while it was thrashing around trying to get away, and then dragged it up on the beach, still thrashing around. The local people who saw it happen were really traumatised. A bullet between the eyes would have been much quicker, but again, that would have required common sense.

http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/st...  

http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/st...  

As I said, no matter what had been done, euthanasia may have turned out to be the only option, but if she'd been fed for those few days, she'd have had some chance. She was sucking on the bottom of boats, for heaven's sakes, so I can't say it would have been hard to get her to drink. As things stand, they ended up saying she was so weak that they had to put her down. As they knew, the calf was becoming weaker and weaker the entire time they were trying to decide what to do, and they made no attempt to feed it. If she hadn't been allowed to starve for the extra few days, it would have made a difference.

Anyway, we've seen what our Aussie scientists are really made of now. All of Australia is furious, not that the calf had to be put down, but that no attempt was made to help/feed it in any way the entire time they tried to decide.

Well, that's my rant over, but I'll still be fuming about this for some time to come, no doubt about it, along with 99% of Aussies, and probably 1/2 the rest of the world.

Added:- Yes, they are going to do an autopsy on the body (or may have done so already). I don't think they can do an autopsy on the adult whale that was found dead, as it was being eaten by sharks and was decomposing etc.. At least they can do DNA tests on both the dead adult whale and 'Colin'. If the dead adult whale turns out to be the mother, though, it will mean the calf wasn't deserted, but was only alone because the mother died. It will be interesting to see what comes of it all.

Answer 3

in nature, mother animals often abandon babies that are sick.

until the perform an autopsy on teh baby (IF they perform an autopsy) they will not know if the baby was sick or not.

Answer 4

We do not know for sure that 'Colin' was abandoned. This is, at present, a presumption.

It is possible that the mother of this calf was herself ill, or injured, or killed.

It has been known for mothers of Cetaceans to remain with a sick or dying calf, risking death themselves, until it dies.  Just consider the whales that follow a sick member of the pod onto a beach and become stranded  themselves - often because they will not leave the member to die alone.

I myself saw a situation with dolphins, where two dolphins pushed a dying companion towards the shore where I was swimming. It died in a matter of minutes from what appeared to be deep injuries caused by a ship's propellor. The two dolphins that had nudged it in to the shore remained in the area for several minutes. They could be seen out in deeper water for some time, observing, and then they swam away.

So, I have doubts that this calf was abandoned.

Of course, there are always exceptions, and this may be one of them.