Newborn dolphin’s life captured on camera

Extraordinary scenes of the early days of a newborn dolphin’s life have been caught on camera for the first time – including an apparent fishing lesson and a gathering of females to see the proud mum and baby.

The footage in a BBC2 documentary also shows a young female’s attempt to kidnap the baby bottlenose dolphin, various hunting techniques employed by the mammals and a shark attack.

The makers of The Dolphins of Shark Bay used miniature cameras to capture the first hours of a calf’s life and previously unseen sights that point to the animals’ intelligence and complex relationships - and which scientists studying the dolphins off the coast of Australia are now planning to research further.

The film follows Puck and her eighth calf Samu, two of the bottlenose dolphins in Shark Bay, western Australia, which is the foremost site for research into the mammals.

Puck leads a group of dolphins nicknamed “the Beachies” because of their hunting technique of driving fish across the shallows towards the shore.

Georgetown University professor Janet Mann, who leads the research into dolphins in the bay, said: “I have followed Puck through her every pregnancy and birth over the last 20 years and we probably know more about Puck than any other wild dolphin.

“The film not only lets others share the intricacies of dolphin social life, but also their prowess in hunting and other proofs of their extraordinary intelligence.

The film crew also captured footage of what appears to be an older calf giving the infant a lesson in how to fish.

Prof. Mann said: “Given the complexity of their hunting, we have long hoped to see behaviour that looks like ‘teaching.’”