Australian kayaker and nature enthusiast Brodie Moss has captured a humpback whale doing a rare 'headstand' in the middle of the ocean. The fascinating video shows Mr Moss paddling along in a transparent kayak and stumbles upon massive tail fin of a humpback whale sticking straight out of the ocean surface.
"My heart is beating so fast," Mr Moss can be heard in the background of his video shared on YouTube. "I think that's a whale tail. It's just come up and stuck its tail up, and it's not going anywhere. I don't even know what to say."
The YouTuber also captured the stunning underwater footage of the whale, which was doing a headstand in the water, while its offspring rests gently near it.
"I don't really know what you guys are doing but I'm friendly," Mr Moss in the video. "Thanks for coming to say hello to me," he added.
According to Science Alert, the behaviour is called "tail sailing". It's a breathtaking view only occasionally witnessed by observers of humpbacks, gray whales, bowhead whales, and right whales, the media outlet said.
A whale researcher told The Huffington Post at the time that the behavior might have to do with resting.
Similar to how humpbacks can sleep vertically in the water column, a mother whale may flip upside down to rest so she can keep an eye on her calf.
By sticking their bottoms up into the wind, a warm-blooded whale could theoretically help regulate its temperature, the outlet said.
