QotD: Embrace of the humpbacks
Jason Edwards -- winner of the Australian Museum's New Scientist Eureka Prize for Science Photography for his first-ever photo of two Megaptera novaeangliae clapsed in a "brief but tender" mating embrace -- recalls the event in an interview earlier this year with The Daily Telegraph:
"It was amazing. There were four or five males vying for her attention and while the larger ones were busy jostling each other, the smallest one swam away with the female."
The male humpback whale then held the female close and caressed her with his fin. "Their coupling lasted less than 30 seconds, which might explain why it's never been captured on film before."
Afterward, the photographer recalled, the female released a burst of bubbles from her mouth, rather than her spout. "The purpose of this bubble release is still unclear."
Maybe there's more to the cigarette-after-sex thing than mere nicotine addiction?
(The photo -- taken off Tonga in the spring of 2010 -- was kept under wraps until this June 21st as researchers studied the new data.)
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"It was amazing. There were four or five males vying for her attention and while the larger ones were busy jostling each other, the smallest one swam away with the female."
The male humpback whale then held the female close and caressed her with his fin. "Their coupling lasted less than 30 seconds, which might explain why it's never been captured on film before."
Afterward, the photographer recalled, the female released a burst of bubbles from her mouth, rather than her spout. "The purpose of this bubble release is still unclear."
Maybe there's more to the cigarette-after-sex thing than mere nicotine addiction?
(The photo -- taken off Tonga in the spring of 2010 -- was kept under wraps until this June 21st as researchers studied the new data.)
This entry is cross-posted from www.dreamwidth.org, where there are
comments. Comment where ye will.