Shedd Aquarium's high hopes for its first successful birth of a beluga whale were dashed early Tuesday when a 160-pound 4-foot-9-inch male calf died just hours after being born.
Almost immediately after its mother, Mauyak, gave birth about 8 p.m. Monday, the calf showed signs of being too weak to swim strongly enough to allow it to stay at the water's surface to breathe properly, said Ken Ramirez, the aquarium's chief marine mammal trainer.
Shedd keepers removed the calf from the water and put it on a respirator within 15 minutes of its birth, suspecting it had taken water into its lungs. It died at 3:30 a.m. Tuesday.
In the wake of the calf's death, animal rights activists accused the Shedd of keeping belugas only for profit.
"We think the breeding programs are a function of strictly generating gate receipts," said Debbie Leahy, who heads Illinois Animal Action, an organization long critical of the Shedd.
"It is totally irresponsible to expose these animals to the rigors of pregnancy and the loss of a newborn. The mortality rate for captive beluga babies is 65 percent, which is ridiculously high."
Mauyak (MY-ak) was alone in the southernmost of the Oceanarium's three whale pools when she gave birth. Keepers said she went into labor about 6 p.m. in the 35-foot deep pool.
"As the calf emerged from its mother during the birth," Ramirez said, "it seemed to be full-term but weak. It did not swim to the surface, but sank. Mauyak, being a good mother, gently grabbed him and took him to surface to breathe.
"Mom kept him on surface for several minutes by letting him ride on her back. After about 10 minutes, however, the calf began moving to the bottom of the pool. It looked like he was drowning, so we immediately intervened."
Keepers opened a gate into the adjoining shallower off-exhibit medical pool. As the mother swam in, the veterinary staff grabbed the calf and put it on a respirator.
"We worked for many hours keeping him going, but when we saw he was never going to make it on his own, we stopped," Ramirez said.
After the death, a necropsy (animal autopsy) showed that the baby whale had water in its lungs.
"It just wasn't strong enough to survive," said Ramirez. "This has been so disappointing for us. We all had been so hopeful that this calf would make it."
Mauyak's was the first beluga whale pregnancy at the Shedd's $41 million, state-of-the-art Oceanarium marine mammal pavilion, opened in 1991 with high hopes of becoming a beluga breeding center.
Belugas are vulnerable during the entire first year of life, but the riskiest time is their first 24 hours, said Lou Garibaldi, the director of the New York Aquarium.
"The most anxious moments are waiting to see a newborn take its first breath," said Garibaldi, who is the studbook keeper overseeing the 34 captive belugas in eight North American aquariums.
"If he gets through that, then you wait anxiously for the mother to swim him around and support him until he finds a mammary and begins to nurse.
"It's a miracle when you see these things work out. In (the Shedd's) case, this calf apparently had respiratory problems from the start and never was able to breathe on its own."
Only eight facilities in North America have belugas, 34 animals in all. The first successful beluga birth in captivity was in 1991 in the Garibaldi's New York Aquarium. Subsequently there have been five other successful births, one in New York, three at Texas Sea World and one at Vancouver's aquarium.
"There were unsuccessful births at several locations before 1991, but 1991 was the watershed year for beluga reproduction," Garibaldi said. "We have started to learn the husbandry and veterinary techniques that make for reproductive success, and since 1991, of 12 belugas born, six are still alive."
Two major breakthroughs in knowledge, he said, were learning that successful beluga breeding centers had to have multiple pools so that mothers can be isolated during birth, especially from males. The other is that chances of pregnancies dramatically increase when at least two beluga males are present at mating time, competing for the affection of females, an apparent social dynamic that increases hormonal activity.
The Shedd facilities qualify in both respects. It is the largest indoor whale exhibit in the world, with four whale-sized pools. In March 1997, it brought in two adult belugas from Tacoma's Point Defiance Zoo, Mauyak, 16, and a male, Inuk (EE-nook). They joined three whales already at the Shedd, two females and a male, giving the pod the proper social and reproductive zeitgeist for inducing beluga pregnancies.
Mauyak had given birth twice in Tacoma, in 1992 and 1994, but both calves died soon after birth. Because this was her third pregnancy, hope was high that her luck might change.
"She did all the right things as a mother," said Ramirez, "so that is something positive to take away from this."
The setback is not the first for the Shedd's cetacean collection. In 1992, a male and a female beluga died there after being given a dose of deworming medicine. Two of its Pacific white-sided dolphins also have died, one last month, and its first dolphin birth was also unsuccessful.
Nonetheless, marine mammal experts believe it is just a matter of time before the Shedd will become a leader in cetacean reproduction because of its highly trained and motivated staff and state-of-the-art facilities.
"They (the Shedd) aren't the first ones to lose a calf," said Garibaldi. "The positive side is they did have a pregnancy, so they know their facility is conducive for that."