A Very Special Baby Dolphin

The 10,000 Islands Dolphin Study Project is the property of Dolphin Explorer LLC and has been monitoring the travel range, social behavior, feeding habits, survival rate, genealogy, and overall well-being of the local bottlenose dolphin population of north Marco Island, Florida, for more than 18 years. Our documented data is shared with colleges, other dolphin study programs, and government agencies on a quarterly basis. The study continues….

What a fantastic start to our 2024 Fall birthing season for our resident bottlenose dolphin population! As of this writing, the study program has documented six new calves, all of which we can identify as local mothers.

The first five moms of these newborns are Kay Cee, Darwina, K2, Nadine, and Jing Jing. The mom of baby number six is very special to our team and we will talk specifically about her today. Why is she so special? She just gave birth to her first known baby….at 18 years old!

Mom’s name is Lucky Charm, and she was one of the first babies ever documented by the team way back in the Fall of 2006. Lucky Charm is a daughter of Avery, who is also quite special, having produced seven calves over the last 18 years.

As other young dolphins in our study area do, Lucky Charm stayed by mom Avery’s side for three years, nursing from mom’s milk, then learning to fish with Avery’s guidance, obtaining social skills, and bonding with other area dolphins. Once Lucky moved away from mom at the age of three because Avery had a new baby, Lucky Charm was well-schooled in how to feed herself and knew the waterways very, very well.

Now, it is quite common for female dolphins to mature at about eight to nine years old and give birth to their first young after a 12-month pregnancy period. Since 2014, the team has watched, and waited, for Lucky Charm to have her first calf. Year after year, every Fall (the prime birthing season in this section of the world) we would expect a calf from this lady, but none was ever seen, no new info to document…until now.

On September 29th, our Marine Biologist, James, and Environmental Scientist, Captain Eddie, came upon a small group of dolphins socializing by the ABC Islands, a rookery near the Judge Jolley bridge. There appeared to be a very new calf among these dolphins. However, several adult females on our list to give birth this year were present, and with all of them moving around, it was unclear which lady was the mom of this particular baby.

As always, our best friends are time and patience, and James and Eddie patiently waited for the group to separate, revealing the mom was positively Lucky Charm. The calf was named Lizzy by guests on our excursion. This was not a complete surprise, but waiting year after year for this female to produce a youngster, we began to think that she might not ever have a calf. This being the case, the entire team was quite ecstatic!

Newborn Lizzy looked to be just a few days old at that first sighting on September 29th so it was reasonable that other females would be nearby. These other ladies, in addition to mom, will help that baby learn balance and assist it to the surface for breathing lessons. We regularly observe this community effort when babies are very new.

We mentioned that Lucky Charm is one of seven offspring produced by Avery. At 18 years of age, Lucky Charm was born in the first year of our survey program. No other program existed in the Marco Island area prior to the 10,00 Islands Dolphin Study Project, so it is unknown if Lucky Charm was Avery’s very first calf or if mom gave birth to several more prior to 2006. We do know that we have documented seven of Avery’s offspring since then.

Lucky Charm’s brothers and sisters are Aubrey, Flash, Anji, 360, Stephen, and Snowflake. We mentioned that Lucky Charm was the sixth mom with a documented birth this Fall, but the season is still young, with our adult females giving birth primarily in September, October, and November.

The other females that could potentially give birth yet this year are Dolly, Nibbles, Patch’s Twin, Payton, Skipper, and Sparky. Other “also eligibles” on the list are Phineas, Salsa, Victoria, Zipper, Robin, Fireball, and Manhattan.

Not all of these females will give birth this year but they are all females that qualify as having the ability to produce a new calf.

Which female will give birth to calf number seven this year? Once again, time and patience are our allies, and we will continue to watch the waters for that tiny blip next to our adult females. Stay tuned for updates here at Coastal Breeze News or join the Dolphin Explorer Facebook page at The Dolphin Explorer Marco Island!