Protection, energetic assistance, or social perks: How do beluga offspring benefit from allocare?

Allocare, care for offspring from nonparents, can carry important benefits for offspring. We investigated the potential benefits of allocare to offspring by examining contexts associated with allocare among St. Lawrence belugas in Sainte-Marguerite Bay, a high-residency area, and the Saguenay Fjord, a transit area. We hypothesized that calves receive similar benefits from mothers and alloparents, namely, protection and energetic benefits, while juveniles associate with alloparents for social purposes. As such, we expected that calves would associate with mothers and alloparents more frequently when exposed to potential dangers, such as adult males and vessel traffic, and in energetically costly contexts, such as the flood tide and during travel, while juveniles would associate with alloparents more frequently during social behavior. We found no trends between allocare and any variables tested. However, we found that calf maternal care in the fjord decreased significantly during socialization, particularly calf-calf socialization. We also found that juvenile maternal care in the fjord decreased significantly when males were present, possibly because juveniles sought associations with males. These findings emphasize the importance of socialization for beluga offspring of all ages. Both maternal care and allocare persisted across contexts in Sainte-Marguerite Bay, highlighting its possible importance as an offspring-rearing ground.