May 8, 2009

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Porpoise is 2nd to give birth in captivity

File photo shows a finless porpose at Wuhan Baji Aquarium in China. A porpoise at Harderwijk dolphin centre in the Netherlands has become only the second to give birth in captivity, the centre announced, but the happy event leaves an enigma: is it a boy or a girl?
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File photo shows a finless porpose at Wuhan Baji Aquarium in China. A porpoise at Harderwijk dolphin centre in the Netherlands has become only the second to give birth in captivity, the centre announced, but the happy event leaves an enigma: is it a boy or a girl?

A porpoise at Harderwijk dolphin centre in the Netherlands has become only the second to give birth in captivity, the centre announced, but the happy event leaves an enigma: is it a boy or a girl?

"Mum Amber and her baby, Kwin, are doing fine," the centre said in a statement on Thursday.

A first porpoise was born in captivity in Denmark in 2007.

"As we don't know much about newborn porpoises, a team of Danish minders has come to help us," the statement said.

Visitors can already come to coo over the baby, but there's no way of discovering its sex for several weeks.

Another tiny problem: who's the proud father?

Kwin's dad is not known for certain as "two males were swimming with Amber at the moment of conception," the dolphin centre said.

(c) 2009 AFP

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