Television has fantastic educational value. We sit back in a lounge chair and see things we normally never see in reality, for instance, a foal, just born and after being licked clean and dry by mum, struggles to get up and is ready to step into the world.
How gigantic must the task appear for the Humpback calf, barely 5 to 6 weeks old, to have to swim 5000 km to Antarctica, cruising along at 6 km per hour, virtually non-stop. Or occasionally breaking out to a top speed of 25 km per hour!
But again nature has provided a relatively simple solution. By positioning itself on the back of mum, our calf soon discovers, that slipstreaming like that is far easier than going it alone. The saving of effort is enormous as we often see this in car racing. Has mother shown or told her `off-spring about it?
Also being above mother ensures that the calf cannot be attacked by sharks, as they always attack coming from underneath.
