Incredible footage has emerged from an aquarium in China that shows the moment when one of their beluga whales gave birth to a calf she had been carrying for nearly 15 months.

The video which was taken by staff at the Changsha Underwater World in central China on 29 October shows the exact moment when the tiny calf enters the world.

According to a spokesman from the zoo, the mother, eight-year-old Zhuo Ya, had been in labour for five hours before the tiny calf appeared before amazed onlookers.

It is the first time that such an event has happened at a zoo in China and has provided Chinese marine biologists an important insight into labour process for Beluga whales. Zhuo Ya was brought to the aquarium from Russia in 2010 and has since been involved in the aquarium’s beluga whale shows, as well as visitors being given the opportunity to swim with her.