One of the lead partake traits among mammals is young ’s dependency on parental Milk River , and while they may have slip their wayback into marine life , whales are no exclusion . That giant calves feed in from their mothers like this is old news , but until now such behaviour amongsperm whaleshad never been caught on camera .

The prosperous team behind the public - first footage were on fix forSecrets of the Whales , a new documentary to be let go of this natural spring by National Geographic . beam on the Disney Channel , the serial publication takes spectator on a deep dive into the life of whale with tale from Sigourney Weaver , bringing bigFinding Doryenergy to the production .

While their mammal status made Milk River production a likely generator of nutrition forsperm whalebabies , incisively how these calf nursed has been something of a mystery . Sperm heavyweight mothers have inverted mammilla , and with a long erstwhile prig ( containing their namesake spermaceti organ ) it seemed like something of a logistic puzzle working out how the two come together .

This young footage show how the calf , in this instance a female , uses its low-pitched jaw to imbue the reverse teat of the mother , which create a pathway for the milk . To say it ’s nourishing is something of an understatement , as this yogurt - like content actually contains 10 times the denseness of fat compared to human Milk River .

It might sound a little like a recipe for morbid obesity , but at 4 meters ( 13 feet ) long , the babies have a destiny of growing to do before they reach their adult sizing of 15.8 meters ( 52 animal foot ) . During this time , since the calves ca n’t tolerate deep dive , sperm whale mothers will sometimes band together to form aprotective huddlenearer the water ’s surface .

Sperm whalesare the largest of the toothed whale , which perhaps explains why their sexual union deportment might have once led a ship of navy man to believe they were facing a fearsome sea brute . In 1875 , sailors aboard the merchandiser vesselPaulinesaw a " sea serpent " they draw as a " milklike column " . However , this finical sea serpent was see in the thick of a pod of sperm cell whales , which at the meter were " frantic with excitement " . Some argue that a surprising telephone number of “ ocean monster ” sighting like this are , in fact , justwhale erection .

Secrets of the Whaleswill be useable for streaming from April 22 ( depending on your location ) and the serial promises further world - first footage including vocalizations , unusual modes of communication , and even acceptance among whale catch on tv camera .