Very Rare: Mother Whale Adopts Orphaned Calf

About a week ago, the staff of a company that is in the business of organizing whale watching tours in South Africa's Western Cape found that these waters were home to an orphaned right whale calf.

At that point, the baby whale was desperately trying to get some milk from a female that was swimming nearby with its own calf. However, this mother right whale seemed anything but willing to welcome another hungry mouth in its life.

“She was vainly trying to beat it away with her tail and rolling and turning in the water, but the little guy was desperate to drink and would not give up,” witnessed say.

However, several days later, the two whale calves were spotted swimming around and nursing milk from the mother whale, which now seemed more at ease with the situation it found itself in, sources report.

“Both calves look healthy and the mother does not look too thin so there is a chance that all may end well,” said Evan Austin, one of the people who saw the mother whale looking after both its own calf and the adopted one at the same time.