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SYDNEY, Australia — A lost humpback whale calf that bonded with a yacht may die in days if it doesn’t find a mother to adopt it, a wildlife official said today.
The 1- to 2-month-old calf was first sighted Sunday in waters off north Sydney, and on Monday tried to suckle from a yacht, which it would not leave. Rescuers towed the yacht out to sea, but the calf returned to an inlet near Sydney this morning, New South Wales National Parks and Wildlife Service spokesman John Dengate said.
The calf can’t survive without mother’s milk for long, Dengate said. “It’s probably a question of days rather than weeks,” he said.
Artificial feeding would be impossible, so the calf’s only chance is to find another female whale to accept it, he said.
