The world has never witnessed the birth of ‘giants’ in the sea like blue whales and rare creatures on land like saola.
White shark (Carcharodon carcharias)
In 2024, the world saw extremely rare footage when a drone recorded for the first time a supposedly newborn great white shark. Great white sharks are the largest fish on the planet, hunting prey larger than the order Shrimp, but observing their reproduction is not simple. The film above is the closest evidence people have in the process of finding out where baby white sharks come from.
The creature in the video is only 1.5 meters long, a length consistent with estimates of newborn white sharks. It seems to be shedding a white layer from its body while swimming. It cannot be ruled out that this is a baby suffering from a skin disease, but it is also possible that the small animal is eliminating uterine contents after being born. Observations of several large, possibly pregnant, sharks in previous days also support this view.
The waters from off Santa Barbara, California, to northern Baja California, Mexico, are likely breeding grounds for great white sharks. But at this time, people have never observed the birth process of baby white sharks.
Whale shark – the largest fish in the world. Image: Animalgraphic
Whale Sharks (Rhincodon typus)
The title of the largest fish on the planet belongs to the whale shark, a “giant” that eats tiny creatures of the order Crayfish, can grow up to about 20 meters long and weigh 20 tons. According to the Galapagos Whale Shark Project, 21 newborn calves have been encountered in the wild, but no one has ever seen this species give birth.
Ningaloo Reef, Australia, may be a breeding ground for whale sharks because they congregate here in large numbers each year after coral spawning and plankton blooms. Finding the exact answer for these massive creatures is even more difficult because they sometimes dive deep beyond the range of tracking devices, up to 2,000 m deep.
Blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus)
The world’s largest mammal also hides from the curious eyes of humans when giving birth. However, experts have recorded them performing impressive mating dances. During the dance, a group of male blue whales pursue a female, using their large bodies to try to defeat their opponent.
Rare observations of blue whales include them nursing their calves. The newborn calf is also very large, weighing about 2,200 – 2,700 kg, according to the Marine Mammal Center. During their life cycle, blue whales visit every ocean except the Arctic Ocean. Although the birth process of any calves has never been observed, scientists believe that blue whales move to warm waters off the coast of Central America to reproduce.
Very few people have ever seen a live saola. Image: Bill Robichaud/Global Wildlife Conservation
Sao la (Pseudoryx nghetinhensis)
Marine life can escape human observation in the deep and vast ocean, but mysteries also exist on land, including the case of the saola or “Asian unicorn”. This is one of the rarest animals in the world and belongs to the Bovine family.Bovidae).
Saola are found in Laos and Vietnam, along the Truong Son range, where they live deep in the forest. People know of their existence through camera traps, bones in villages with characteristic horns and local information, but no biologist has been lucky enough to encounter them in the wild and no one has ever encountered them. see them giving birth.
Snow Leopard (Panthera uncia)
Snow leopards have been bred in zoos, helping scientists better understand how they reproduce. However, finding the breeding grounds of this animal in the wild is almost impossible. This mysterious animal lives in remote high mountain areas and is extremely difficult to detect thanks to its skillful camouflage ability, blending into the rocky landscape.
The Snow Leopard Trust and Panthera found two breeding dens after tracking females wearing radio collars. Both are located high up in rocky canyons, one in an artificial shelter, the other in the middle of a narrow rock crevice.
Javan rhinoceros (Rhinoceros sondaicus)
The Javan rhinoceros, one of five species of rhinoceros that still exists on Earth, is one of the rarest large animals in the world. Only males have horns and their horns are relatively short and fat. They are currently listed as critically endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Red List, but the good news is that cameras recorded wild newborn cubs earlier this year.
The entire wild population of Javan rhinoceros lives only in Ujung Kulon National Park, Java Island, Indonesia. Therefore, although no one has witnessed it with their own eyes, the scientific community knows that this is where they give birth. Providing space for wild animals is important for their good health, and young rhinos at Ujung Kulon are monitored remotely with the help of camera traps.