WHALES 



Figure 20§. The birth of a Bottlenose Dolphin in the Marineland Aquariunu Florida. 

 {Photograph: R. J. Eastman, Miami.) 



to a protective instinct which ensures that the cow in labour is not left 

 behind or attacked by enemies when she is most helpless. In the Marine- 

 land Bottlenoses, the first labour pains lasted for thirty to sixty minutes; 

 they were followed by violent contractions of the abdominal wall, and 

 then the flukes of the calf suddenly appeared from the genital slit (Fig. 

 205). 



We might not have expected the tail to emerge first, since, normally, 

 human babies, calves, foals, indeed the young of most uniparous mammals, 

 are born head first (Fig. 206), breech presentations being signs of a difficult 

 birth. Now, it might have been possible to argue that captive Bottlenoses 

 are atypical and are born tail first only because of unnatural environ- 

 mental factors, were it not a fact that of twenty-five Cetacean births and 

 still-births which have been observed, only one was a head presentation. 

 The exception was reported by Essapian in an othei~wise normal young 

 Bottlenose, born in Marineland (Florida). Vladykov also reported a head 

 presentation in a Beluga, though on evidence that requires further 

 investigation. Fig. 205 gives a good idea of the normal birth of a Bottlenose, 

 and the same position has been observed not only in various dolphins, 



