Humpback happiness

This Humpback Whale calf is just a few weeks old and we would have been some of the first human beings that it had ever seen, so it stopped by to check us out. For scale, a humpback calf at birth is between 3 - 5 meters long and weighs in at almost a tonne. Her mother however, will be four times this size and can weigh as much as 30 tonnes. It's the difference between a campervan driving past vs. a full sized bus. Humpback mothers migrate from the cold but nutrient-dense waters of antarctica up to the warm waters of Tonga to give birth to their young. During this migration they stop feeding and live entirely off stored fat, even while providing all the nutrients necessary to nourish their calves. By the time they return South they can have between 25 and 50% of their body mass. Talk about the sacrifices of parenting!