This is the incredible moment a baby sperm whale playfully bumped into a diver - only to be scolded by an elder.

Max Della Libera, 36, a freediver and underwater photographer, was on diving trip off the coast of Mauritius when he captured the footage.

Max had been on the water with the pod for about an hour when the incident happened.

The video shows the whale moments after bumping into Max, who can be seen swimming away.



An adult whale then approaches the calf to "tell her off."

Max theorised that they may be mother and daughter, but he wasn't certain as sperm whales also have babysitters.

Max, who is from Pangalao in the Philippines, said: "I didn't see her approaching as I was filming her 'mum' who went deeper and as I was coming back up she bumped into my back."

"I was startled but then I realized what was happening and I started to shoot this video."

The experience was beautiful but intense for the diver, who prefers not to interact with whales and was trying to get away.

He explained: "We were all very excited, of course, for the whole hour! It's not every day that a whale gives you that much attention."

"At that particular moment, I was just trying to get away from her."

"I dive with a group who prefers to let them be so we avoid touching them or getting too close to them."

The calf, whom Max calls Jade, had been interested in the diver since the beginning and finally tried to play with him directly after an hour.

Max explained: "Jade was playful from the start. We were swimming with them for about an hour before I captured this moment."

"She was definitely trying to play here."

Max thinks Jade is a little more than a few months old.

The experienced diver said he'd never heard of an encounter like this despite diving several times a week for eight months of the year.

He said: "[The encounter was] definitely a very rare encounter."

"I had friends on that trip with over 100 dives with whales and they have never seen something like this."

"I went on about 25 day trips to find and observe whales. "

"They were sometimes curious and approached us but they were not as interactive as this one time."

The pair of sperm whales were far out into deep and open water as the large carnivores only hunt in deep water.

Max said: "We drove out in the sea to seek deep waters as that's where the sperm whales are. "

"They can hunt at depths over 2km deep."

"We were lucky to find a pod after about an hour and half and we were in and out of the water a couple of times."

"We then found another pod a bit further away and joined that one instead."