Newborn Commerson's dolphin calf dies at SeaWorld

By Colin Wolf on Mon, May 22, 2017 at 11:25 am

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Newborn Commerson's dolphin calf dies at SeaWorld

Photo via SeaWorld

A newborn Commerson's dolphin calf, whose mother made headlines earlier this month for getting pregnant while on birth control, died only minutes after being born last weekend at SeaWorld's Aquatica water park.

The calf died Saturday, May 20, says SeaWorld.

The current pod of Commerson's dolphins at SeaWorld is supposed to be the last group held in captivity, but as the company announced earlier this month, a dolphin named Ringer got pregnant while on birth control.

The company released a statement about the calf's unexpected death on its official blog:

For the past month, Ringer has been under 24 hour observation by her keepers and caretakers. She gave birth a little after 8 p.m. last night (May 20, 2017). We were all hoping for the best outcome for her and her calf, and had all the support we could provide in place. The team responded immediately when the calf began to show signs of distress, a few minutes after birth, but unfortunately were unable to resuscitate the calf.

According to SeaWorld, the 16-year-old mother had four previous unsuccessful pregnancies before coming to Aquatica from SeaWorld San Diego in January 2016.

There are now four total remaining Commerson's dolphins in the SeaWorld company.