On May 7th, Planete Sauvage announced that the bottlenose dolphin known as Parel had given birth to a calf weighing around 12kg.
This is the fourth birth at the park and the second calf for Parel who in 2016 gave birth to a male calf known as Nouma. In 2015 Parel also gave birth to a female calf which was killed after being placed in the hospital pool with her mother, who sustained a violent attack from another dolphin called Lucille. Lucille appeared to be suffering mental stress after being transferred from Harderwijk in the Netherlands, separated from her two calves which remained there.
The park is now running a competition for the public to name the new calf, believed to be male*.
*UPDATE: 16.07.19 – the calf is now confirmed to be male and has been named ‘Kuma’.
Information courtesy Marine Connection