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It is the greatest animal battle on the planet, and it has finally been caught on camera. A BBC natural history crew has filmed the "humpback whale heat run", where 15m long, 40 tonne male whales fight it out to mate with even larger females.
During the first complete sequence of this behaviour ever captured, the male humpbacks swim at high speed behind the female, violently jostling for access. The collisions between the males can be violent enough to kill.
The footage was recorded for the BBC natural history series Life. It's the closest we're ever going to get to dinosaurs fighting
"Even though this is one of the most common of the large whales, very little is known about its actual sexual behaviour," says Life producer Dr Ted Oakes. "One of the most interesting things is that humpbacks have never been seen to mate."
But what has been filmed is the epic battle between males to get mating access to the female whales. Up to 40 males swim behind a single female at speeds of up to ten knots, each jostling to obtain a dominant position.
"It's the closest we're ever going to get to dinosaurs fighting. It's the largest battle in the animal kingdom and it feels like something out of Jurassic Park," says Dr Oakes.
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