Monkey Mia dolphin pod has new calf

The habituated dolphin pod regularly hand fed by the public at Monkey Mia beach in Western Australia has a new addition to the community.

'Shock', one of the dolphins that regularly visits tourists at the beach, has given birth to her first calf. Tourists have been asked to stay out of the water when a mother and her calf were present in the shallow beach water. However, a review of the practice at Monkey Mia has reported that 12 of 17 named calves born since 1975 to provisioned (fed) females have died.

Studies of the dolphins have shown that provisioned females and their calves spend less time in contact compared with non-provisioned female/calf pairs, thereby significantly increasing vulnerability to shark attack, and that irreversible dependence behaviour such as begging also lessens the chances of long-term survival.