Brookfield Zoo Celebrating Birth Of Bottlenose Dolphin Calf
(CBS) --Just two weeks after a dolphin was born at Brookfield Zoo - and died soon after - now Brookfield is celebrating the apparent healthy arrival of a new dolphin calf.
So far so good for the 3-and-a-half foot long, 35-to-40-pound male dolphin born Friday at Brookfield Zoo.
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"It's nursing well, and we've been able to pass a number of milestones that we look for."
Bill Zeigler is senior vice president in charge of animal programs at Brookfield Zoo.
Besides nursing, the calf is slipstreaming.
"...where the calf hugs the side of the female and as the female moves, she creates a wave, if you will, that allows the calf to tuck in next to her... and he slides along with her and doesn't have to work very hard because the wave actually pulls the calf along with the female."
Zeigler says the first 30 days are critical in the life of the dolphin calf.
Brookfield now has eight dolphins: this newborn, two one-year-olds and five adult females. And Zeigler says one of them is pregnant and due in January.
