A brand new calf is always an exciting event for the dolphins -and the researchers. This is also a difficult time for both mother and calf. The newborn must learn to coordinate his or her movements with the mother, breathe at the surface, dive, nurse, and avoid danger such as tiger sharks. Much of the popular and scientific literature has promoted the view that females “babysit” for each other, referred to as allomaternal care. Births to the provisioned dolphins (see Monkey Mia beach dolphins-click here) in the early 1990s allowed us to systematically observe several wild newborns nearly every day from birth. During these and offshore observations, it became clear that during the first week of life, female dolphins that are either inexperienced or who have not successfully calved, attempt to steal the newborn from the mother by swimming rapidly past it. The newborn, with an innate following response, simply swims after the faster moving dolphin. We have called this “natal attraction” since the females seem to be drawn towards the infants. Mothers sometimes attacked females who stole their calves, and they typically had to steal their own calf back using the same method. Adult females are rarely aggressive in any other context. Oddly enough, mothers tolerate those same females swimming away with their calves during the second week of life. We’ve proposed that the first week is an imprinting period and mothers do not tolerate separations from their calves until they’ve learned to recognize the mother.