A whale watching tour in Norway has documented the first-ever recorded birth of a killer whale in the wild.
The photographers captured the entire event and released a series of photographs from the dramatic moment of birth to the pod forming a protective circle around the newborn calf.
These moments were captured on a trip by researchers with Green Gold of Norway.
Krisztina Balotay, a wildlife photographer and naturalist with Orca Channel was among the crew on the boat when they noticed a sudden spill of blood in the water near them.
“We were floating calmly….when all of a sudden, close to the boat, there was blood spilling and splashing everywhere,” Balotay recounted on social media.
Baloney then captured the moments including the moments the newborn calf with its dorsal fin still bent from being in the womb.
After the birth, the pod of orcas, composed of females and juveniles, became intensely active and formed a tight, protective circle around the mother and her new baby.
The Norwegian Orca Survey, which tracked the group after the tour left, also confirmed the significance of the event.
They identified the mother orca which is previously tagged as codenamed NKW-591.
The researchers confirmed that Balotay’s documentation is “the first ever documentation of a killer whale birth and the newborn’s first hour of life in the wild.”