Astonishingly Rare Footage of a Fin Whale with Two Calves!

It's hard to put into words just how rare this footage is! As far as we know, there has never been viable twins born to a baleen whale. The energy demand and cost of rearing just one giant infant can push female whales to the brink of starvation. To raise two at once would likely be impossible...until proved otherwise!

We don’t know much about the social dynamics of fin whales in this population, but this is certainly the first time I have witnessed two fin whale calves around a single adult female. Fin whale calves are often given the freedom to roam up to a mile away from their mothers, so my best guess is that one of these young whales saw the other young whale and decided to stop by for a “play date”.

Other possibilities certainly exist, and it would be fascinating to know if the unseen fin whale mother(assuming there was one) had any sort of communication or connection with the fin whale mother in this sequence. A version of babysitting and group child-raising exists in many toothed whale species, but is not something that’s been recognized in baleen whales like these fin whales!