Where was a humpback whale first captured giving birth on camera? Nat Geo features footage in new series Incredible Animal Journeys

Scientists witnessed and photographed a humpback whale giving birth for the first time in recorded history on March 5, 2021, in Hawaii's Lahaina. The incident will soon be highlighted in National Geographic's upcoming series, Incredible Animal Journeys.

According to National Geographic, every year a large number of female humpback whales travel to the Hawaiian Islands to give birth in the region's warm, predator-free waters. Dr. Rachel Cartwright and her team conducted an in-depth analysis of the mammals, and she was also the scientist who witnessed the incident.

Dr. Cartwright is a whale researcher at the Keiki Kohola Project, a Maui-based non-profit that protects humpback whale mothers and calves. She told Nat Geo that they had been waiting to witness the birth for 25 years as it was something that had never been seen.

As mentioned earlier, scientists had never witnessed the full birth of a humpback calf before. They had only seen glimpses of a female whale giving birth.

The first episode of the upcoming Nat Geo series is set to be aired on the National Geographic channel on November 19, 2023. The episode will stream on Disney+ and Hulu on November 20, 2023.

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Scientists witnessed a humpback whale giving birth for the first time

Scientists recorded the birth for the first time in history. (Image via YouTube / National Geographic)

Scientists and National Geographic filmmakers witnessed the full birth of a humpback whale in the first week of March 2021 in the remote Hawaiian town of Lahaina. This was the first time scientists and researchers had been able to witness the full process and shot the video at a well-known safe space where the whales gave birth.

Filmmakers caught a humpback whale giving birth before the 5,000-mile journey to their feeding grounds, according to the YouTube description of the official video. Few females with bulging calf flukes, a sign that labor has begun, have been observed by scientists on Maui and across the world. However, until 2021, they hadn't seen the entire delivery process.

The first-ever full humpback whale birth captured on camera, from beginning to end, is what made the event so significant. It will feature in the National Geographic series Incredible Animal Journeys, premiering on November 19 on National Geographic, and be available for streaming the next day on Disney+ and Hulu.

Chief research scientist Stephanie Stack of the Pacific Whale Foundation in Maui spoke to Nat Geo about the incident. Stack said that they had received a lot of calls from people who claimed to have seen a whale being born.

When one of her research boats saw a pod of male humpbacks congregating at the water's surface close to a female they were hoping to mate with, they thought that it was a lucky sight.

When a crew member plunged into the water to shoot the mammals, they saw a tiny fluke sticking out of the female's underbelly.

“At that point, we knew we had a possible birth,” Dr. Cartwright told National Geographic.

According to Dr. Cartwright, they observed a large spurt of blood emerge on camera before seeing the calf a few seconds later.

Cartwright also said that the team used a research drone without realizing they were about to make history. She added that until she played it back, she was unaware of what she had recorded with her drone. When she and her team began viewing the video, they realized that they had recorded a piece of the birthing process along with other data.

According to National Geographic, humpbacks produce strings of bubbles during courting, hunting, or even to cause the release of feel-good hormones like oxytocin as the bubbles travel across the whale's skin.

Cartwright said that the female was swimming through a train of bubbles as if she were receiving a mini-spa treatment or massage.

The film was teased by National Geographic on Friday. It will be released in its entirety as part of the network's upcoming series Incredible Animal Journeys, which premieres on November 19.

The series will be narrated by actor Jeremy Renner and new episodes will be released every Sunday on the Nat Geo channel. They will be made available to stream on Disney+ and Hulu the next day, on Monday.