When a humpback whale began playing with Nan Hauser like a toy, she feared the worst. The 50,000-pound mammal swam toward the marine biologist and began to nudge her.
Nan had been deep-sea diving for 28 years, but had never known a whale to be this touchy-feely. It appeared hell-bent on throwing Nan on its head and back. Most of all, it wanted to tuck Nan under its pectoral fin.
For ten tense minutes, the whale butted, bumped, and lifted Nan out of the ocean. She tried to remain cool, calm, and collected. She was aware that at any moment, the whale could break her bones or rupture her organs. Death by drowning was also in the cards.
Nan believed the encounter would not end well. Fortunately for her, it did. The whale left her alone long enough for her to surface and return to her research vessel.
Onboard the boat, she saw a 15-foot-long tiger shark prowling on the other side of the whale.
Amazingly her team had captured the whole encounter on camera. The heroic humpback wasn’t playing with her or attacking her. It was protecting her from a deadly predator.
Nan later learned that at the same time, another humpback whale was busy keeping the shark at bay.
Before the humpback left, it surfaced to blast some water from its blowhole. Nan believes it was checking on her and saying goodbye. Nan responded in kind and said, “I love you, too.”
This might be the first time a humpback whale has been recorded on video saving a human. In other unprecedented interspecies news, biologist Adam Warwick saved a black bear from drowning.
When the authorities saw a bear roaming the streets of Florida, they took action. They shot a tranquilizer dart into the 375-pound hungry male. Before the sedative overpowered the bear, he escaped into the Gulf of Mexico. The bear was attempting to swim four miles across the harbor. But after just 25 yards, he began to struggle.
Realizing the bear would drown, Adam threw caution to the wind and jumped in. He got in front of the bear and began splashing and shouting to try to make him turn around.
In a panic, the bear attempted to climb on Adam. The six-foot-tall bear reared up, but then fell backward underwater.
Adam wrapped his arms around the half-awake animal’s neck. Keeping the bear’s head above water, he dragged him to safety. Onlookers said it looked no different than a lifeguard rescuing a swimmer.