Original air date: 1 November 2015
Above is a timeline of how the programme progresses
Selected sequence
The battle between a mother humpback whale and orcas (38’30-44’20)
A few selected snapshots from the scene between the humpbacks and the orcas
The first picture (top left) has three arrows. The top one points at one of the orcas. The left-most arrow points at the mother, submerged. The third points at the calf. The top right picture shows the mother followed by two male escorts as well as several faint figures that are the orcas following the mother – trying to wave-wash the calf off her back (shown in detail in Frozen Planet, episode 1. The males lashed at the orcas (bottom left) and blocking their sonars so being there would be risky for the orcas who were driven off. Driving them off the males left the mother and calf unguarded, enabling the orcas to double back and isolate the calf to drown it (bottom right). Being protected by two males should be even more astonishing than by a single one (Life Story, episode 1). Both of them can hardly be related. Can there be something like kindness involved?