A man has met a whale that seems frozen in place

The video, shot by an Australian user TikTok, caused a wave of interest from scientists and fans. In the footage, you can see a humpback whale doing a rare "headstand". This strange behavior raises many questions and has been attracting the attention of scientists for several decades.

Such behavior, when the whale's tail floats out of the water and remains motionless, struck not only the author of the video, but also many other people. This phenomenon is sometimes called a "sail tail", as it resembles a sail raised from the ocean. However, this behavior is observed only occasionally in humpback whales, gray whales, bowhead whales and right whales.

Not only in Australia, but also in other regions of the world, cases of similar behavior of humpback whales have been recorded. For example, off the coast of Brazil, during a long-term study of this species, tail swimming was observed for several seconds to 12 minutes. Brazilian experts found that the whales slowly twisted their tail around the longitudinal axis. This behavior was observed both in solitary whales and in mothers with cubs.

One possible explanation for this behavior is rest. A mother whale can turn upside down to rest and look after her cub. Also, tail swimming can be a way of cooling. By exposing the lower part of the tail to the wind, the whale can regulate its temperature. However, these hypotheses require further research to confirm.

Brody Moss, the author of the video, hopes that his observations will help scientists better understand this mysterious behavior of humpback whales.