Whale experts in Australia have shared extraordinary footage of the moment a baby humpback whale being born.
Drone pilot Alexander Forrest had been watching humpback whale in New South Wales when he noticed one female acting very strangely.
“I'd been observing this humpback whale drifting slowly northbound close to shore,” he says in a statement. “At first, I thought she was simply resting because I'd never seen a whale travelling so slowly and consistently.”
What happened next was breathtaking.
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“Within moments, everything changed,” says Forrest, who volunteers from the Organisation for the Rescue and Research of Cetaceans in Australia (ORRCA). “A plume of blood appeared beneath her and a tiny calf rose to the surface for its very first breath. I realised I was witnessing something incredibly rare.”
The experts believe this captivating moment is the fourth complete humpback whale birth ever caught on video and the first filmed by a drone.
Forrest couldn’t believe what was unfolding right in front of him. “My adrenaline was through the roof,” he says. “After thousands of hours filming whales from the air, I've never witnessed anything comparable.”
Once the newborn had taken a breath, it rejoined its mother and started learning how the world works. Over the next few hours, Forrest continued to watch over the pair and took more footage with fellow ORRCA drone operator Tanya Snowden and friend Dominic Cotter-Dephoff.
The videos of this young baby’s first moments in the world are utterly charming but they may also be important for humpback research.
“The time between Alexander finding her with his drone and the appearance of the calf in a cloud of blood means that she was already in labour when first sighted,” says Annie Post, head of research at ORRCA.
“However, being able to capture the arrival of the calf and the following moments with footage and detailed behavioural observations collected by the drone team will add important information to the limited accounts of humpback whale births.”
ORRCA's scientists will now study all this footage of the calf’s first hours in the world in detail to see what we can learn about these incredible animals.
“Being able to document this event in such detail makes it an incredibly important scientific observation,” says Post. “It is an extraordinary contribution to our understanding of humpback whale reproduction and maternal behaviour.”
Video and image credit: Alexander Forrest-ORRCA
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