Indianapolis Zoo welcomes baby dolphin

Astute visitors to the Dolphin Pavilion at the Indianapolis Zoo knew. "Is that dolphin expecting?" they would ask, pointing to Kalei as she maneuvered through the water in the final weeks of her pregnancy. But when Kalei's calf was born in late April, the zoo kept quiet.

The first few weeks of a dolphin's life can be tenuous; even in the wild, many dolphin babies die within days of being born. So, no birth announcements heralded the new arrival. The only sign zoo visitors had that anything was up was the temporary cancellation of all dolphin shows.

Behind the scenes, staff worked round the clock to ensure that Kalei and her daughter were healthy and doing well.

Six weeks later, the calf has grown to 70 pounds, almost twice her birth weight of 39 pounds. She's nursing and breathing well. She's even ventured briefly away from her mother's side and mother Kalei has taken that in stride.

And now, that calf has a name — Calypso.

Still, it took weeks for zoo staff to breathe a little more easily.

"Dolphin calves are remarkably fragile. They're more fragile than many other types of mammals," said Rob Shumaker, the zoo's vice president of Conservation and Life Sciences, in an exclusive interview with The Star about the baby dolphin.

In the past two weeks, the zoo has allowed visitors back into the Dolphin Pavilion, where Kalei and Calypso swim in a pool out of sight of the public. The dolphin show with its lights and music has returned.

A few months will pass before mother and baby meet the public. Until that time, the zoo has restricted photos to help minimize stress on the two Atlantic bottlenose dolphins.

Kalei, who was born at the zoo 15 years ago, gave birth in 2010 and 2012. Both of those calves died soon after birth, the zoo said.

Still, zoo staff decided about a year ago they would try again. China, who gave birth to Orin three years ago, is still lactating. Orin eats plenty of fish so he doesn't rely on her for sustenance. However, if Kalei had trouble with her milk supply, China could help out.

Zoo officials stopped Kalei's oral contraceptives and segregated her with Kimo, a wild-caught male. Then they waited, conducting regular ultrasounds to check for conception.

About 11 months ago, the ultrasound revealed a fluid sac, a sign that Kalei was in the earliest stages of pregnancy. From that moment, she was given relatively free rein.

"Pregnant moms need to do what they want to do. Comfort is first," Shumaker said. "We don't ask them to do anything they don't want to do."

As her due date approached, zoo staff performed regular temperature checks and watched her around the clock. It's thought that right before a dolphin gives birth, her temperature, which normally is just a tad lower than human body temperature, drops two degrees.

On Friday, April 24, Kalei's temperature had dipped one degree. By 10 p.m., her temperature had dropped another degree. The zoo marine mammal staff, veterinarian staff and Shumaker stood around the pool, watching.

Most mammals arrive in this world head-first. Not dolphins.

Baby dolphins come tail-first. Like other baby mammals, they need to breathe. But unlike most baby mammals, they're borne underwater. If their heads came out first, they would drown.

Once the baby arrives, the mother dolphin needs to teach the newborn how to breathe.

"The mom literally puts the baby on her head and she keeps the baby out of the water," Shumaker said.

Zoo staff weighed Calypso and sampled Kalei's milk. The liquid was fatty, like melted ice cream, just what they wanted to see. That first night, mother and baby did well.

But the experts knew the next few weeks could be tenuous. For the next 30 days, about 20 members of the zoo staff took shifts, monitoring baby and mother around the clock.

Monitors watched for two things: Was Calypso nursing well and was she breathing well?

Breathing for dolphins requires a conscious decision to surface. Healthy dolphins should breathe every nine to 15 minutes.

Breastfeeding also has specific parameters. Dolphin nursing is quick and efficient. In the first days, a baby dolphin nurses for 71 seconds per hour. After that, dolphins nurse for about 14 seconds every hour, sucking out milk from the mammary glands, located a little behind the dorsal fin on a dolphin's belly.

Producing milk with such high nutrient content is not easy for dolphins. During her pregnancy Kalei consumed about 13 pounds of fish a day. Since Calypso's birth, she's been eating 33 pounds, including some more fatty fish like herring, Shumaker said.

It's hard to know how well this diet duplicates that of a nursing mother in the wild, however.

For now, at least, it's working. Calypso is developing not just physically but in other ways as well. She has swum away from her mother into another pool, a positive sign of budding independence, and just as positive has been Kalei's nonchalant reaction.

Calypso has demonstrated her playful side, chasing her shadow or engaging with the stimulus toys the marine mammal staff offers. She's even started fast-swimming alongside her mother, typical behavior for older dolphins.

"It's really inspiring. There's so much power in that tail," Shumaker said.

About two weeks ago, the zoo stopped monitoring mother and baby overnight. Now, they sample Calypso's breathing a few times a day. A weekly weight check and blood sample helps ensure all's well.

Sometime in the next four weeks, assuming all continues to go well, Calypso will meet her "aunties", the other female dolphins, and Nova, her maternal biological grandmother. At some point this summer, again if all continues to go well, the public can see her.

Plans call for Calypso to stay with her mother indefinitely, just as she would in the wild. And, a baby brother or sister could be in her future, Shumaker said. In a few years, the zoo staff will evaluate whether to allow Kalei to breed again.

Call Star reporter Shari Rudavsky at (317) 444-6354. Follow her on Twitter: @srudavsky.