Humpback whales are born swimming, but they still need a little
help from mama to find their sea legs. In an intimate new video posted by
researchers at the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa's Marine Mammal Research
Program (MMRP), a very-very-fresh baby humpback experiences
its first swimming lesson next to, behind and on top of its mama, which is
still bleeding from her labor.
According to MMRP director Lars Bejder, who took the drone footage
in January off the Maui coast, the condition of both mother and baby whale
suggests that the little humpback was mere minutes old. [Photos:
World's Cutest Baby Wild Animals]
"[Local tour operators] had just seen all this whitewater and
commotion in the water and weren't quite sure what it was," Bejder said
in a statementfrom UH. "Suddenly there was all this
blood in the water, which made us go over there and that's what we discovered —
a newborn
calf."
As the baby whale takes its fist "steps," so to speak,
you can see how its never-used fins and tail flukes wobble around in the water.
Sometimes, Bejder noted, the mama humpback could be seen supporting the baby on
its back as they moved through the water together. (That gives
"humpback" a new meaning, eh?)
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