by New research shows that murderous whales in southern residents take care of each other with the help of Kelp that they have adjusted, and researchers think that this is the first time that researchers have documented aids for making marine mammals.
The research, which was published on Monday in the current Biology magazine, documents around 30 cases in which whales steal against each other and peel the dead skin. They also documented the whales that gain stealing from Kelp and use their teeth to shorten Kelp and make them in a good shape for care behavior.
“They not only find objects in the area and use them as a tool. They find objects, change objects and use them as a tool,” said Michael Weiss, an author of the study that is research director at the Center for Whale Research in Friday Harbor, Washington.
A stem of Kelp is visible between two murderous whales while rubbing each other. (Center for Whale Research)
It is the first time that whales are documented, making and changing tools, although humpbacks are seen to make air bubbles to catch krill and fish during hunting.
The researchers think that the behavior is common at Orkas in the southern inhabitant, a population that visits the waters of the state of Washington. The behavior seems to be more common in whales that are genetically related and can help them with hygiene, but also to bind as a social group, which is common with other mammals.
“It corresponds well to taking care of other types of animals such as monkeys and non -guilders,” said Weiss. “They will take care of each other and smooth out as a primary way to maintain special relationships.”
Deborah Giles, the science and research director of the non -profit protected group of Wild Orca, said she was not surprised that the animals were able to be such a complex task.
“They are incredibly smart animals. The morphology of their brains shows us their ability to learn social, language and memory and emotion,” she said. “This is another cultural what they are doing. They have learned it from family members and it probably serves multiple goals – skin that solidifies social bonds.”
A murderous whale holds a piece of kelp in his mouth. (Center for Whale Research)
Southern Resident Killer Whales are a critical endangered population that is protected under the Marine Mammal Protection Act. Their current population is around 73. The animals are social and live in close family groups led by mothers and grandmothers.
The whales receive tracking numbers from the Center for Whale Research and are closely observed by researchers, photographers and whale guards – especially when they are near communities along Puget Sound, such as Seattle.
“I would dare to say that it is the most well -studied population of whales on the planet, regardless of the species, because it has been going on for 50 years,” Giles said.
How did this stunning behavior have escaped researchers for decades?
They didn’t have the right perspective.
“It is really a cryptic behavior. It is almost completely under water and it is a piece of kelp clamped between two animals that is only about 2 feet long,” said Weiss.
More recently, researchers started using drones to document whales from an air perspective. Because Drone technology has been improved, the data they have collected are also.
“What really changed for us in the field season 2024-We have a new drone,” Weiss said and noticed that the video with a higher resolution offered.
He said that the researchers noticed a whale for the first time that Kelp pushed against another whale in April and then observed whales that rub against each other for about 15 minutes.
Once the researchers noticed the strange behavior, they started to see it more often.
“We started to see it a lot – until the point now most days we fly with the drone, we see at least one few whales doing this behavior,” said Weiss.
The researchers suspect that the behavior has happened all the time.
“We didn’t have the right advantage. I really believe that this is something that probably has been happening for a bad time,” Giles said. “I think we have just scratched the surface of understanding these animals, partly because of technology.”
The southern inhabitants have been in the spotlight of conservation efforts for decades. The whales are confronted with a number of threats, including declining quantity and quality of prey, toxic pollution and disruption by ship noise, according to the Marine Mammal Commission. Some studies suggest that the southern inhabitants are on their way to extinction, if more aggressive measures are not taken.
Weiss said that the new findings still offer a reason why it is important to take care of the species.
“Discovering something like that, leaving the game for how long we have studied them, says there is much more to learn and that they should be in the neighborhood to learn those things,” he said. “This is not only a collection of 73 whales … It is a unique culture and also a society. These are whales with a series of traditions that go back thousands of years.”
This article was originally published on nbcnews.com
