Give us a kiss! Lucky tourist gets a whale of a smacker from charming calf in Mexico

 

 

By Mail Foreign Service

Last updated at 5:09 PM on 2nd June 2010

 

• Comments (18)
  
• Add to My Stories
  

 

It's the image that gives new meaning to the phrase 'holiday fling'.

These lucky tourists came closer to a pod of magnificent grey whales than most people could ever imagine during a tour to the San Ignacio Lagoon, off the Baja Peninsula this March.

 

Natural curiosity brought one calf close enough to the boat for one of the tourists to bend down and kiss it on the nose.

 

But we've only just met! A charming grey whale calf receives a kiss from a tourist in San Ignacio Lagoon on the Pacific side of the Baja Peninsula, Baja California Sur, Mexico

 

 

 

Having a visit: The American and Canadian tourists nearly fall out of the boat as they rush to get pictures of the whales

 

These shots show the moment one brave whale-watcher puckered to plant a kiss on one of the biggest foreheads around, that of a wild grey whale.

The encounter took place in the San Ignacio Lagoon off the Baja Peninsula in Mexico in March this year.

A small group of whales was curious enough to investigate a small boat carrying American and Canadian tourists that had drifted into the lagoon.

When one particularly interested calf came up to sniff around, seen here being kissed by one of the ladies, it charmed everyone.

 

[caption

 

The whales are generally comfortable around people and often like to have a little social time with humans in their world.

And as photographer Michael Nolan, who took the shots explained, this is lucky considering man's historical treatment of grey whales.

He said: 'To think that man has almost wiped out the California grey whale from the planet twice by whaling activities, first in the mid 1800s and again at the turn of the 20th century, it is all the more amazing that these whales have either forgiven, or forgotten, out past transgressions against them.

'Now the fact that they choose to actively interact with out boats gives us hope for the future relationships between both species.'

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1283373/Give-kiss-Lucky-tourist-gets-whale-smacker-charming-calf-Mexico.html#ixzz0pjBqN8z9

It's so cute! :cheesy:

I'm so jealous. :blush: That's seriously amazing.