Bottlenose Dolphin Adopts Whale Calf — a First for Marine Mammals
Interspecies adoption is extremely rare for wild animals. Only one case of a wild mammals adopting an infant from a different species was ever documented (a group of capucins adopting a marmoset) before scientists from the Groupe d’Etude des Mammifères Marins (GEMM) confirmed that a dolphin mom adopted a melon-headed whale calf in the coastal waters of French Polynesia. This is the first ever documented case of interspecies adoption for marine mammals.