Tail-fin first: See a baby dolphin born at a Swedish zoo

Watch the tail-fin slowly emerge from his mother Fenah, as the third generation of dolphins is born at Sweden's Kolmården zoo.

Published: 29 January 2018 17:24 CET

Tail-fin first: See a baby dolphin born at a Swedish zoo

The calf mostly swims close to his mother Fenah. Photo: Kolmården Zoo

The baby, who has yet to be named, was born on January 4th at Sweden's biggest zoo, which is two hours' drive south of Stockholm.

“He's practising using his fins, swinging from side to side and steering himself,” zookeeper Filip Johansson said in a statement.

“Those first weeks in a dolphin calves lives are critical. We can thank our expertise and experience that further animals in our care have one again had a successful birth.”

The calf was just one meter long at birth, and weighed just 15kg. When fully grown he will weight more than 200kg.

The zoo has decided to wait for about a month before naming the new baby, hoping that by then his personality will have started to emerge.

His mother Fenah had an uneventful 12-month pregnancy before giving birth to the calf.

The boy is the third generation in his family to be born at the zoo, with both Fenah, and his grandmother Lyra, 18, born in the dolphin enclosure.

Here's a video of the birth.

And here's the baby a few weeks later, carrying out some manoeuvres with the rest of the pod.