By Issy Ronald, CNN
(CNN) — When researcher Jared Towers arrange his cameras underwater to look at a pair of killer whales, he noticed one thing unusual.
One of many orcas, a juvenile feminine, “approached a digital camera I had within the water to movie her youthful brother after which opened her mouth and set free a lifeless seabird,” Towers, the chief director of Bay Cetology, a Canadian workforce of marine biologists primarily based in Alert Bay, British Columbia, informed CNN.
She closed her mouth, paused, apparently looking ahead to Towers’ response and hung within the water whereas the lifeless seabird floated up above her. Then, after a couple of seconds, she rolled round in direction of the digital camera and swallowed the hen once more.
A number of years later, Towers noticed one other younger feminine killer whale displaying the identical conduct – this time, nevertheless, the orca “dropped a freshly killed harbor seal pup proper beside my boat.”
Towers mentioned these incidents along with his colleagues all over the world, discovering that they too had been gifted meals by killer whales.
When he collated the cases, he discovered 34 instances of killer whales presenting people with meals between 2004 and 2024.
He and his colleagues laid out their findings in a paper printed not too long ago within the Journal of Comparative Psychology the place they try and unravel the explanation why killer whales is perhaps doing this.
Maybe, they hypothesized, the killer whales are curious and exploring how people will react to a present. Possibly they’re enjoying, although they largely low cost this idea as a result of whales of all ages, slightly than simply juveniles, provisioned meals. Or, maybe it’s one thing extra sinister – killer whales have been identified to make use of prey to draw different species after which kill them, however there is no such thing as a file of orcas ever killing people within the wild.
“I don’t suppose it’s simple to recommend there may be one cause for this conduct as a result of there are underlying mechanisms and proximate causes,” Towers stated.
“The primary underlying mechanism is solely that they will afford to supply us meals and the primary proximate trigger could also be that they’re doing in order a approach to discover and subsequently study extra about us.”
In all however one of many instances documented, the killer whales initially waited for a response from the people earlier than most of them retrieved the meals, although some merely deserted it and a few even tried to reward it once more.
The people ignored the meals virtually on a regular basis; they took it solely 4 occasions and in three of these instances, they threw it again into the water afterward.
Pets convey their homeowners presents – consider the lifeless mice or birds that cats depart exterior the door – and animals have been noticed giving presents to one another. However till now, there have been barely any recorded instances of untamed predators giving presents to people, apart from a couple of cases of false killer whales – a species of dolphin – and leopard seals providing folks meals.
“In a method, it’s not stunning, as a result of… all people who’s on the water with (killer whales) has skilled how inquisitive and curious they’re and have had interactions the place you already know there’s one thing occurring between us and them,” Hanne Strager, a researcher and creator who wrote “The Killer Whale Journals,” who wasn’t concerned within the examine, informed CNN.
Killer whales are probably the most clever animals; solely people have a bigger mind relative to their physique dimension, based on the examine. They usually kill a lot bigger animals relative to their very own physique dimension than different whales and dolphins, which means they will have extra meals to share round.
They’re additionally believed to have spindle neurons of their brains – a kind of neuron identified to be related to empathy – stated Philippa Brakes, a behavioral ecologist on the College of Exeter specializing in whales and dolphins who wasn’t concerned within the examine.
Whereas she added that figuring out motivation is troublesome “as a result of we are able to’t interview them,” she urged to CNN that it might be “altruistic” or only a “primary organic operate” mimicking “one thing you may do to a juvenile.”
The researchers discovered that it didn’t matter the place on the earth the whale was or whether or not it was male or feminine, a calf, a juvenile or grownup – all of them displayed this conduct.
It matches right into a wider sample of killer whales typically initiating interactions with people and boats, providing additional perception into their lives.
And Towers hopes it serves as a reminder that “whereas our species is clearly extra technologically superior than another on the planet, we do share it with different extremely developed species whose welfare have to be thought-about in our actions.”
Name to Earth is a CNN editorial sequence dedicated to reporting on the environmental challenges going through our planet, along with the options. Rolex’s Perpetual Planet Initiative has partnered with CNN to drive consciousness and training round key sustainability points and to encourage optimistic motion.
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