This humpback whale saved a marine biologist from being attacked by a tiger shark

Dogs are man’s best friends – Nan Hauser begs to differ!

It is a common thought that a dog is a man’s best friend. This may be true in most cases, but Hauser has an even better friend in the animal population.

Hauser is a marine biologist with almost 30 years of experience with whales underwater. However, last October, she had a life-changing (or even life-threatening) experience when a humpback whale that probably saved her life.

During Hauser's regular ‘swimming session’, while investigating the ocean world, a 50,000 whale swam up to her, bumped and nudged her out of the water. The whale was insisting on tucking the snorkeler under its huge pectoral fin and dragging her out of the water.

Hauser claims that she had never seen such a persuasive whale even though she had spent the last 28 years underwater with this species.

However, the humpback whale had a good reason for its behavior. Just as she started to get out of the ocean, she noticed a 15-foot-long tiger shark lurking. Due to the heroic action of this humpback whale, Hauser managed to avoid a deadly encounter with a predator shark.

Did the whale do it on purpose? Well, according to Hauser's words, it did. Furthermore, humpback whales are famous for protective actions and it should not be considered a coincidence.

The whale also rescued Hauser so gently that she was injury-free.

And this was not the first time a humpback whale saved a life. In fact, in 2009, another marine biologist, Robert Pitman, snapped a photo of a humpback whale saving a seal from hungry killer whales. This intrigued him so much that he went on to research the phenomenon and discovered 115 cases of altruistic acts between 1951 and 2012.

For that reason, it is believed that these whales have a motherly instinct to protect the weaker from predators.