A second baby dolphin has been born at Dolphin Quest in less than a week.

Ten-year-old Atlantic bottlenose dolphin Ely, who was born on the Island in 2003, gave birth to a calf at the facility in Dockyard at around 6pm on Saturday.

The birth comes less than a week after Ely’s mother Bailey gave birth to her third calf.

General manager of Dolphin Quest, Christine Mihelcic, said: “We are so proud of our thriving dolphin family. The first few days and weeks of a young dolphin’s life are extremely critical, and our highly experienced team will closely monitor moms and calves around the clock in the coming weeks.”

A spokesman for Dolphin Quest said the facility plays an active part in reproductive studies, helping scientists to understand the increasing pressures on wild dolphin populations.

“At Dolphin Quest, with excellent maternal nutrition and neonatal care, our infant survivability is almost 90 percent, while dolphin researchers believe that due to pollution, habitat destruction and depleted fish stocks, dolphins born in the wild have a much more difficult time surviving,” the spokesman said.

He also stressed that a portion of the money raised by the facility goes toward marine research and wild dolphin population studies such as the Sarasota Dolphin Research Project.

Female dolphins typically reach sexual maturity between the age of five and 13, and birth one calf every two to six years.

While the mammals can live for up to 40 years, at least one wild population study has suggested their average lifespan is around 20 years.