A newborn humpback whale calf is lifted clear of the water to take its very first breath off Ningaloo Reef
Credit: Micheline Jenner, CWR
SYDNEY: Whale researchers have witnessed the birth of a humpback whale off the coast of Australia. This may be the first time the initial breath of a humpback calf has ever been captured on film.
Though they didn't understand what they were watching at the time, the experts later realised from photographs that they had witnessed a "calf's first breath of life," which they described as a "holy grail" for whale science.
Births are rarely witnessed for any large species of whale, making this an exhilarating experience said husband and wife team, Curt and Micheline Jenner from the Centre for Whale Research in Fremantle, Western Australia, who captured the images on 19 July.
"Never seen anything like it"
"We've being doing this for twenty years and we have never seen anything like this. No science literature has been published that I'm aware of that shows this kind of thing either," Curt Jenner told Cosmos Online.
The scientists were heading into the Tantabiddi entrance to Ningaloo Reef, on the northern coast of Western Australia, 1,270 km north of Perth, when they sighted a large and possibly pregnant humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) in the passage and slowed down to photograph it.
"We frequently see pregnant cows in the area so we weren't very surprised" he said.
The researchers started photographing the whale and noticed there was a calf alongside the mother. But it wasn't until an hour later when they were going into anchor that they noticed a large amount of blood in the water evident in the photographs.
"We pieced everything together and realised we had actually witnessed it being born," Curt said. "Literally taking its first breath."
Mysterious occurrence
The calf was struggling to stay at the surface to breathe and was swimming around in tight, clock-wise circles with only the tip of its snout protruding. "We saw the cow dive below the surface underneath the calf, lifting it clear of the water so it could take its first breath. The calf ended up lying on the cow's nose," he said.
Pregnant females are often sighted at this time of year as they head north along the reef to give birth in the warmer waters of the Kimberley calving grounds, near Camden Sound near the northern tip of Western Australia, where the water temperatures are typically 4 to 5º warmer than at Ningaloo.
Why the whale was found giving birth in colder waters is a mystery. The researchers believe global warming may be causing cows to leave their Antarctic feeding grounds later, preventing them from making it to tropical waters to give birth. Alternatively it may be due to the slowing down of the whale's migration by increased boat traffic, said Curt.
They have already begun an investigation into the phenomenon. The scientists have interviewed skippers of local whale shark vessels, who have already reported having seen at least five small calves in the area, indicating this may be not be an isolated event.
Curt said that they named the baby whale Tantabiddi after the part of the reef where it was born.
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