This is the incredible moment a baby sperm whale playfully bumped into a diver - only to be scolded by an elder.<br /><br />Max Della Libera, 36, a freediver and underwater photographer, was on diving trip off the coast of Mauritius when he captured the footage.<br /><br />Max had been on the water with the pod for about an hour when the incident happened.<br /><br />The video shows the whale moments after bumping into Max, who can be seen swimming away. <br /><br />An adult whale then approaches the calf to "tell her off."<br /><br />Max theorised that they may be mother and daughter, but he wasn't certain as sperm whales also have babysitters.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />"I was startled but then I realized what was happening and I started to shoot this video."<br /><br />The experience was beautiful but intense for the diver, who prefers not to interact with whales and was trying to get away.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />"At that particular moment, I was just trying to get away from her.<br /><br />"I dive with a group who prefers to let them be so we avoid touching them or getting too close to them."<br /><br />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.<br /><br />Max explained: "Jade was playful from the start. We were swimming with them for about an hour before I captured this moment.<br /><br />"She was definitely trying to play here."<br /><br />Max thinks Jade is a little more than a few months old.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />He said: "[The encounter was] definitely a very rare encounter.<br /><br />"I had friends on that trip with over 100 dives with whales and they have never seen something like this.<br /><br />"I went on about 25 day trips to find and observe whales. <br /><br />"They were sometimes curious and approached us but they were not as interactive as this one time."<br /><br />The pair of sperm whales were far out into deep and open water as the large carnivores only hunt in deep water.<br /><br />Max said: "We drove out in the sea to seek deep waters as that's where the sperm whales are. <br /><br />"They can hunt at depths over 2km deep.<br /><br />"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.<br /><br />"We then found another pod a bit further away and joined that one instead."
