Stories about whales saving humans and other animals have been around for years.

We’ve all heard the stories about people in shark attacks that were protected for hours on end by passing sea mammals, and we probably passed them off as urban myths. Now it seems that they might be true after all…

The National Geographic have reported that researchers observed a bizarre occurrence, when watching a pod of killer whales attacking a gray whale and its calf in Monterey Bay, California, killing the calf.

Amazingly, two humpback whales appeared as the orcas continued to  attacked to assist the mother whale. After the calf had been killed, 14 more humpbacks appeared and prevented the orcas from eating the calf for a whole six hours, ignoring their own hunt and feeding schedules to do so.

The phenomena has mystified experts.