Baby Gray Whales: Know A Bit More About Them

I know all of you get excited when you think about baby graywhales. Or at least i think you are probably interested in knowing some things about the babies that you might not read anywhere else (except in my book).

                                                  This is a young baby whale - mouth open

Baby gray whales are usually born beginning around mid-December through late January.

•The chance for survival is greatly enhanced if their mother can arrive at one of the Baja California, west coast nursery lagoons before she gives birth.

Just what are the survival chances for those newborn gray whales? Scientists have only been able make guesses – call them educated guesses based upon a wide range of observations – but still only guesses at this point in time.

The most widely accepted view of survival rates for gray whale babies at the end of one year is perhaps 80% to 90 % survive the first year if they are born inside one of the 3 major nursery lagoons.

That statistic flip-flops and is likely to be only a 10% to 20% survival rate for those unfortunate baby gray whales that are born in the open ocean while the mother is in the process of migrating south. 

                                        This baby gray whale is relatively young, perhaps 2 weeks.

Notice the uniform dark gray color. As the baby ages he will quickly develop light colored scar tissue all over his body from rubbing constantly against his barnacle clad mother. Her barnacles leave surface scratches that turn a lighter gray color.

Another characteristic of the very young gray whale is the shape of his head. Notice there is a hump like shape to the upper head in silhouette. A shape sometimes reminds me of a Chinese pug nosed dog.

I can tell this baby is more than a week old because the pre-natal folds of skin that hang around a newborn baby whale’s face, reminiscent of the breed of dog known as Sharpei, have already filled out. He has grown into those deep folds that are only visible during the first week or so after birth.

Another telling characteristic in this photo is the lack of barnacles. All gray whales begin developing barnacle growth almost as soon as they are born. After 2 weeks the young barnacles are obvious to the naked eye. In this photo I cannot see any developing barnacles.

My guess is this photo is of a baby whale between 7 and 15 days old.