12 ms·

Humpback whales around the globe are mysteriously rescuing animals from orcas

278 points by nreece 10y ago

japhyr 10y ago
Humpbacks are amazing animals. I live in southeast Alaska, and humpbacks pass through here every spring and fall. They spend their winters in Hawaii where they mate, and they come back here to feed in the spring and summer. When they first arrive in the spring you can see their vertebrae as they arch their back for a dive. After eating all summer, you can see how much they've filled out by the time they pass through on their way south in the fall. When they arch for a dive they've fattened up enough that you can't see individual vertebrae anymore. It's an amazing experience to paddle a kayak out into a calm bay and sit for an hour surrounded by a dozen humpbacks, or to sit in a calm stretch of ocean with whales surfacing as far as you can see in every direction. They'll come within ten feet of a kayak, and you know they'll never bother you. They just seem curious about what's out in the water with them. They engage in bubble-net feeding. A group of humpbacks circle underwater beneath a school of herring. They let out bubbles and build a wall of bubbles around the herring. The whales then swim up inside the bubbles and break the surface with their mouths open, feasting on the trapped herring. It's wild to see a ring of bubbles appear near you on the surface, and then see half a dozen whales rise up out of the water with their mouths open. My favorite part of being close to whales is listening to them breathe. You can hear the size of their lungs from the sound of their breaths. If you've never been close to whales, try to get on a whale watching tour. They're just incredible to see in person.
- electic 10y ago
  I just went to Alaska. It was my first time and I couldn't believe the amazing beauty I've seen. I would love to go back. You mentioned kayaking, any suggestions on where to go?
  - japhyr 10y ago
    I live in Sitka, and it's a pretty cool place for kayaking. We face the open Pacific, but there are a bunch of small islands just offshore that protect most of our immediate coastline. So the water right next to town is relatively calm. Then there's a larger volcanic island about 7 miles out, which protects us from open ocean swells. The sound in between has moderate seas. If you want big seas, you can head southwest and be on big open ocean swells. But there's amazing kayaking throughout coastal Alaska. The panhandle has the inside passage, with miles of relatively protected waters. You can kayak in Glacier Bay, or up near Homer, or the Aleutians if you're badass. If you go with a tour, be careful who you book with. There are operations that take care to bring people to places that are good for beginners to kayak. For example one company here brings their clients to a secluded cove where people won't face big swells or wind or boat wakes. But another company launches people right from downtown, where they immediately face big boat wakes, and the wind can pick up uncomfortably for beginners.
  - peterwwillis 10y ago
    For Gray Whales, Bahia Magdalena, Puerto Vallarta and Laguna Ojo de Liebre all have great whale watching, and in Bahia Magdalena you can pet them from a boat; don't know about restrictions on kayaks there but it should be open in Puerto Vallarta (just don't get in the water, too much bacteria/jellies). There's also Depoe Bay in Oregon and Monterey Bay in California, and Lime Kiln State Park in Washington for Orca watching.
    - nkoren 10y ago
      Petting a whale from a boat is an amazing experience -- I did this 23 years ago in Ojo de Liebre. The mother Gray Whales would push their calves up to the boats so that they could receive some petting on the nose. There was no material reward for doing so -- they didn't get food or anything. I got the distinct impression that they understood that having an emotional bond with humans was important, and that they were doing it for that reason. Gotta say that it worked.
  - asmdb 10y ago
    A 2 hour drive south of Anchorage is Seward, where there are several kayaking companies which will take you out into Resurrection Bay. People often see a variety of wildlife on these excursions, such as humpbacks, orcas, sea lions, jellyfish, etc. A cool kayaking trip from Seward is to Caines Head recreation area, where you can hike through boreal forest up to an old abandoned World War 2 fort with beautiful views of the bay. Homer is about 3 hours south of Anchorage and is also a good place for sea kayaking. I personally have more experience with packrafting, which I highly recommend. High quality lightweight packrafts can easily be carried on/in a day pack. A recent packrafting trip I did: drive 1 hour south of Anchorage to Portage railroad stop, take the train 20 minutes south to the Spencer Glacier stop, paddle around the lagoon adjacent to the glacier (don't get too close, it calves frequently and can be quite dangerous), then paddle all the way back to the car on the Placer River (not a technical river)... about 8 hours total trip time.
  - marg0t 10y ago
    Where did you go? I would recommend checking out Seward and Cordova.
  - electic 10y ago
    Thank you everyone for your suggestions.
- camelNotation 10y ago
  My priest was just in Sitka for several weeks on sabbatical. There's a significant Eastern Orthodox population there and I may be visiting myself next year. If I do, I will be sure to find time for whales.
- whamlastxmas 10y ago
  Worth noting that whale watching tours are considered harmful by some studies: http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-14107381 http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-14107381
- anotherdev 10y ago
  And they give dolphins rides on their backs for fun. They're just good all around! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lC3AkGSigrA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lC3AkGSigrA
mrob 10y ago
There's an interesting video of a humpback whale being freed from a net: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcXU7G6zhjU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcXU7G6zhjU We don't know for sure if it really is showing appreciation at the end, but humpback whales are social animals so IMO it's plausible. It certainly makes a big effort at breaching despite being trapped for a long time and despite there being no other whales nearby. Why would it do that if it's not trying to communicate with the humans?
- b6 10y ago
  Interesting! I don't know, of course, but it strikes me that it could just be pure happiness. After I give my dog a bath outside and let him off the leash, he tears around the yard.
- csydas 10y ago
  Not to be a wet blanket, but Wiki suggests a few other reasons that it might breach that might be in line with being stuck for some time in a dingy net. Or maybe the whale was just having a lot of fun now that it could move. Or maybe it's a really big thank you like you suggest :) If it's either of the latter though, I do find that interesting behavior regardless.
- steveax 10y ago
  That's an amazing vid. There's also a radiolab episode with an account of divers rescuing a humpback whale from a net: http://www.radiolab.org/story/91701-animal-minds/ http://www.radiolab.org/story/91701-animal-minds/
- HelloMcFly 10y ago
  Probably scratching a large number of itches it developed while stuck in the net. But, it's a win for everyone either way.
tomlock 10y ago
Maybe they do it because less food for orcas means less healthy orcas to hunt their own calves?
- adwn 10y ago
  Maybe, but less food for orcas also means more hungry, desperate orcas hunting humpback whale calves.
  - tomlock 10y ago
    Maybe, but at some point a hungry orca starves.
transfire 10y ago
Everyone knows that Orcas are the assholes of the sea.
- ajmurmann 10y ago
  I thought that's what those humans were that fish the whole thing empty and drag nets over the ocean floor.
  - Frenchgeek 10y ago
    We're the assholes of the land. We're just so good at it it spill over to the sea too. Let's hope one day we will be assholes in space.
    - solipsism 10y ago
      Way to aim high!
    - TeMPOraL 10y ago
      > Let's hope one day we will be assholes in space. Plot twist! You know that alien space invaders from the movies, who come to Earth to drain all its resources and go somewhere else? That's us from the future! And the head of the invasion is probably some poor space-fisherman saying "sustainability something blah blah, I have to make a living, you know!".
    - Roboprog 10y ago
      Is that a new TV series this fall? I suppose it's been done, but this time, with an honest name.
      - HillaryBriss 10y ago
        Rectum Leap ... kind of combines the old title with the new concep ... eh ... never mind
- zipwitch 10y ago
SeanDav 10y ago
If I may play Devil's advocate here - it is very easy to anthropomorphize animal behaviour. There are numerous examples in the animal kingdom of animals protecting and even rearing animals from other species. This could be down to genetics and learned behaviour and nothing to do with altruism, or other noble sentiments. Part of me says it is highly unlikely that Humpback whales have a vendetta against killer whales and are the policeman of the oceans, but the bigger part of me, wants to believe that they are exactly that!
- ObeyTheGuts 10y ago
  So altruism is not genetics? We share like 90% of same genes with whales, and most of rest 10% of different genes have just small difference, separating humans from animals is just simply stupid.
  - glup 10y ago
    It could also be culturally transmitted
- cygx 10y ago
  it is very easy to anthropomorphize animal behaviour It's also very easy to assume humans are more special than we actually are.
  - finid 10y ago
    I do find it interesting that we (humans) think we are "more special" than we actually are. People just forget or don't know that the same spark that powers our physical bodies also powers the physical bodies of other living things.
    - cygx 10y ago
      And that the brains that support our minds are part of said bodies. Eg corvids with their tiny little bird brains are apparently capable of feats of intellect that are very human-like in various ways.
knutae 10y ago
Humpback whales apparently have to defend their juveniles against hunting orcas. It is surprising that they would defend other species in the same way, but it seems likely to be the same instinct that causes them to protect their own, rather than altruism. Then again, maybe you could make the same claim about humans. :-)
- gozur88 10y ago
  It doesn't necessarily have to be altruism to make sense. Less for orcas to eat --> fewer orcas --> fewer attacks on humpback calves.
  - buserror 10y ago
    Or perhaps it makes sense to practice the skill as much as they can, so they are better at it when it comes to defend their own young?
    - MrMullen 10y ago
      To me, this is what it is. If young Humpbacks are vulnerable for a certain amount of time, being good at protecting them would a good idea. They can't risk losing that skill since every time they fail, a young Humpback dies.
  - Aelinsaar 10y ago
    That would be quite the impressive bit of generalized cognition and logic from a whale, perhaps even more significant than feeling something.
    - Kapow 10y ago
      It wouldn't need to involve cognition and logic, it could be evolutionary coincidence: humpback whales with behavior that happens to result in fewer orcas nearby would have more surviving offspring, so this behavior would be selected for.
tgarma1234 10y ago
I wish we could have a big long term experiment where maybe we try to teach the whales to let us know if they understand altruism and whether they could be taught to communicate an intention to us directly by flipping a switch to activate lights or something like that. It seems like whales are aware of what they are doing in a deeper way than other animals but we just don't know how to access their intentions through communication.
grondilu 10y ago
Some form of brood parasitism, maybe? I mean it is known that orcas hunt whale calves and presumably this involves an instinctive reaction from the adults to the calf's distress signal. So perhaps various other preys have learnt to imitate this distress call in order to gain protection from what are possibly the only animals in the sea capable of fighting an orca. Or maybe whales just hate orcas and want them to starve.
Tosh108 10y ago
It's interesting that we have such a hard time accepting the emotion of altruism both in humans and animals. The author of the articles states: "could just be revenge". Revenge is in many ways more senseless then altruism for evolutionary purposes (unless you directly attack killer whales that threaten you, but one could argue that that's a form of self-defence), but from our ego perspective it feels more intuitive, at least to the author. There are also comments in this thread that reflect this way of thinking.
- jdimov10 10y ago
  I don't deny that altruism exists, but to me it's just another form of egoism. Nobody can convince me that they have ever done anything for ANY other reason than because of the belief that it will be good for them or that they'll get some sort of kick out of it. Not Mother Theresa, not anyone, ever. Because it's not possible. If you don't put your own interests first, you have nothing to give to others anyway. Moreover, people who are not egoists freak me out. To me, such people are the ultimate hypocrites and I fell that I can't trust them with anything.
  - ceejayoz 10y ago
    > Nobody can convince me that they have ever done anything for ANY other reason than because of the belief that it will be good for them or that they'll get some sort of kick out of it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falling_on_a_grenade https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falling_on_a_grenade
    - jdimov10 10y ago
      That's called being an idiot. Your government has brainwashed you into thinking of such acts as noble and courageous. They are not. Acts like this do not deserve admiration or respect. Encouraging this in the name of "patriotism" is beyond despicable. But to get back to the point, as an individual, the only reason you would do something like this is because you feel better knowing that you have sacrificed your life to save other people's lives. Because, presumably, you couldn't live with yourself if you didn't. So if that's your way of dealing with the situation - that's fine, I guess. I still think you're an egoist for doing it.
genericacct 10y ago
On a similar note: last week i observed a group of seagulls relentlessly attacking a phantom quadcopter that was flying over their territory. The quad clearly wasn't trying to eat their offspring so it could be that the whales are just asserting their territorial rights..
- celticninja 10y ago
  asserting their rights by allowing a hunted seal to rest on its belly and helping it remain there by using its fins? Did you read the article before commenting?
  - cosmicac 10y ago
    He could mean asserting its rights by not allowing other animals to hunt in its territory. I don't know if that is common behavior among animals though.
- tantalor 10y ago
  > a phantom quadcopter So, it was imaginary?
  - enraged_camel 10y ago
    http://www.dji.com/product/phantom-3-pro http://www.dji.com/product/phantom-3-pro
- HillaryBriss 10y ago
  on many occasions, i've seen a dog mistake an empty plastic bag, pushed down the street by a breeze, for a dangerous threat to its existence. could seagulls have been making a similar mistake?
_Codemonkeyism 10y ago
Can we stop calling Orcas killer whales? Thanks.
doctorstupid 10y ago
It could be training practice for the protection of their own young.
er0l 10y ago
real whale wars!
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]

278 points by nreece 10y ago

Humpbacks are amazing animals. I live in southeast Alaska, and humpbacks pass through here every spring and fall. They spend their winters in Hawaii where they mate, and they come back here to feed in the spring and summer. When they first arrive in the spring you can see their vertebrae as they arch their back for a dive. After eating all summer, you can see how much they've filled out by the time they pass through on their way south in the fall. When they arch for a dive they've fattened up enough that you can't see individual vertebrae anymore. It's an amazing experience to paddle a kayak out into a calm bay and sit for an hour surrounded by a dozen humpbacks, or to sit in a calm stretch of ocean with whales surfacing as far as you can see in every direction. They'll come within ten feet of a kayak, and you know they'll never bother you. They just seem curious about what's out in the water with them. They engage in bubble-net feeding. A group of humpbacks circle underwater beneath a school of herring. They let out bubbles and build a wall of bubbles around the herring. The whales then swim up inside the bubbles and break the surface with their mouths open, feasting on the trapped herring. It's wild to see a ring of bubbles appear near you on the surface, and then see half a dozen whales rise up out of the water with their mouths open. My favorite part of being close to whales is listening to them breathe. You can hear the size of their lungs from the sound of their breaths. If you've never been close to whales, try to get on a whale watching tour. They're just incredible to see in person.

electic 10y ago
I just went to Alaska. It was my first time and I couldn't believe the amazing beauty I've seen. I would love to go back. You mentioned kayaking, any suggestions on where to go?
- japhyr 10y ago
  I live in Sitka, and it's a pretty cool place for kayaking. We face the open Pacific, but there are a bunch of small islands just offshore that protect most of our immediate coastline. So the water right next to town is relatively calm. Then there's a larger volcanic island about 7 miles out, which protects us from open ocean swells. The sound in between has moderate seas. If you want big seas, you can head southwest and be on big open ocean swells. But there's amazing kayaking throughout coastal Alaska. The panhandle has the inside passage, with miles of relatively protected waters. You can kayak in Glacier Bay, or up near Homer, or the Aleutians if you're badass. If you go with a tour, be careful who you book with. There are operations that take care to bring people to places that are good for beginners to kayak. For example one company here brings their clients to a secluded cove where people won't face big swells or wind or boat wakes. But another company launches people right from downtown, where they immediately face big boat wakes, and the wind can pick up uncomfortably for beginners.
- peterwwillis 10y ago
  For Gray Whales, Bahia Magdalena, Puerto Vallarta and Laguna Ojo de Liebre all have great whale watching, and in Bahia Magdalena you can pet them from a boat; don't know about restrictions on kayaks there but it should be open in Puerto Vallarta (just don't get in the water, too much bacteria/jellies). There's also Depoe Bay in Oregon and Monterey Bay in California, and Lime Kiln State Park in Washington for Orca watching.
  - nkoren 10y ago
    Petting a whale from a boat is an amazing experience -- I did this 23 years ago in Ojo de Liebre. The mother Gray Whales would push their calves up to the boats so that they could receive some petting on the nose. There was no material reward for doing so -- they didn't get food or anything. I got the distinct impression that they understood that having an emotional bond with humans was important, and that they were doing it for that reason. Gotta say that it worked.
- asmdb 10y ago
  A 2 hour drive south of Anchorage is Seward, where there are several kayaking companies which will take you out into Resurrection Bay. People often see a variety of wildlife on these excursions, such as humpbacks, orcas, sea lions, jellyfish, etc. A cool kayaking trip from Seward is to Caines Head recreation area, where you can hike through boreal forest up to an old abandoned World War 2 fort with beautiful views of the bay. Homer is about 3 hours south of Anchorage and is also a good place for sea kayaking. I personally have more experience with packrafting, which I highly recommend. High quality lightweight packrafts can easily be carried on/in a day pack. A recent packrafting trip I did: drive 1 hour south of Anchorage to Portage railroad stop, take the train 20 minutes south to the Spencer Glacier stop, paddle around the lagoon adjacent to the glacier (don't get too close, it calves frequently and can be quite dangerous), then paddle all the way back to the car on the Placer River (not a technical river)... about 8 hours total trip time.
- marg0t 10y ago
  Where did you go? I would recommend checking out Seward and Cordova.
- electic 10y ago
  Thank you everyone for your suggestions.
camelNotation 10y ago
My priest was just in Sitka for several weeks on sabbatical. There's a significant Eastern Orthodox population there and I may be visiting myself next year. If I do, I will be sure to find time for whales.
whamlastxmas 10y ago
Worth noting that whale watching tours are considered harmful by some studies: http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-14107381 http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-14107381
anotherdev 10y ago
And they give dolphins rides on their backs for fun. They're just good all around! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lC3AkGSigrA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lC3AkGSigrA

mrob 10y ago

There's an interesting video of a humpback whale being freed from a net: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcXU7G6zhjU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcXU7G6zhjU We don't know for sure if it really is showing appreciation at the end, but humpback whales are social animals so IMO it's plausible. It certainly makes a big effort at breaching despite being trapped for a long time and despite there being no other whales nearby. Why would it do that if it's not trying to communicate with the humans?

b6 10y ago
Interesting! I don't know, of course, but it strikes me that it could just be pure happiness. After I give my dog a bath outside and let him off the leash, he tears around the yard.
csydas 10y ago
Not to be a wet blanket, but Wiki suggests a few other reasons that it might breach that might be in line with being stuck for some time in a dingy net. Or maybe the whale was just having a lot of fun now that it could move. Or maybe it's a really big thank you like you suggest :) If it's either of the latter though, I do find that interesting behavior regardless.
steveax 10y ago
That's an amazing vid. There's also a radiolab episode with an account of divers rescuing a humpback whale from a net: http://www.radiolab.org/story/91701-animal-minds/ http://www.radiolab.org/story/91701-animal-minds/
HelloMcFly 10y ago
Probably scratching a large number of itches it developed while stuck in the net. But, it's a win for everyone either way.

tomlock 10y ago

Maybe they do it because less food for orcas means less healthy orcas to hunt their own calves?

adwn 10y ago
Maybe, but less food for orcas also means more hungry, desperate orcas hunting humpback whale calves.
- tomlock 10y ago
  Maybe, but at some point a hungry orca starves.

transfire 10y ago

Everyone knows that Orcas are the assholes of the sea.

ajmurmann 10y ago
I thought that's what those humans were that fish the whole thing empty and drag nets over the ocean floor.
- Frenchgeek 10y ago
  We're the assholes of the land. We're just so good at it it spill over to the sea too. Let's hope one day we will be assholes in space.
  - solipsism 10y ago
    Way to aim high!
  - TeMPOraL 10y ago
    > Let's hope one day we will be assholes in space. Plot twist! You know that alien space invaders from the movies, who come to Earth to drain all its resources and go somewhere else? That's us from the future! And the head of the invasion is probably some poor space-fisherman saying "sustainability something blah blah, I have to make a living, you know!".
  - Roboprog 10y ago
    Is that a new TV series this fall? I suppose it's been done, but this time, with an honest name.
    - HillaryBriss 10y ago
      Rectum Leap ... kind of combines the old title with the new concep ... eh ... never mind
zipwitch 10y ago

SeanDav 10y ago

If I may play Devil's advocate here - it is very easy to anthropomorphize animal behaviour. There are numerous examples in the animal kingdom of animals protecting and even rearing animals from other species. This could be down to genetics and learned behaviour and nothing to do with altruism, or other noble sentiments. Part of me says it is highly unlikely that Humpback whales have a vendetta against killer whales and are the policeman of the oceans, but the bigger part of me, wants to believe that they are exactly that!

ObeyTheGuts 10y ago
So altruism is not genetics? We share like 90% of same genes with whales, and most of rest 10% of different genes have just small difference, separating humans from animals is just simply stupid.
- glup 10y ago
  It could also be culturally transmitted
cygx 10y ago
it is very easy to anthropomorphize animal behaviour It's also very easy to assume humans are more special than we actually are.
- finid 10y ago
  I do find it interesting that we (humans) think we are "more special" than we actually are. People just forget or don't know that the same spark that powers our physical bodies also powers the physical bodies of other living things.
  - cygx 10y ago
    And that the brains that support our minds are part of said bodies. Eg corvids with their tiny little bird brains are apparently capable of feats of intellect that are very human-like in various ways.

knutae 10y ago

Humpback whales apparently have to defend their juveniles against hunting orcas. It is surprising that they would defend other species in the same way, but it seems likely to be the same instinct that causes them to protect their own, rather than altruism. Then again, maybe you could make the same claim about humans. :-)

gozur88 10y ago
It doesn't necessarily have to be altruism to make sense. Less for orcas to eat --> fewer orcas --> fewer attacks on humpback calves.
- buserror 10y ago
  Or perhaps it makes sense to practice the skill as much as they can, so they are better at it when it comes to defend their own young?
  - MrMullen 10y ago
    To me, this is what it is. If young Humpbacks are vulnerable for a certain amount of time, being good at protecting them would a good idea. They can't risk losing that skill since every time they fail, a young Humpback dies.
- Aelinsaar 10y ago
  That would be quite the impressive bit of generalized cognition and logic from a whale, perhaps even more significant than feeling something.
  - Kapow 10y ago
    It wouldn't need to involve cognition and logic, it could be evolutionary coincidence: humpback whales with behavior that happens to result in fewer orcas nearby would have more surviving offspring, so this behavior would be selected for.

tgarma1234 10y ago

I wish we could have a big long term experiment where maybe we try to teach the whales to let us know if they understand altruism and whether they could be taught to communicate an intention to us directly by flipping a switch to activate lights or something like that. It seems like whales are aware of what they are doing in a deeper way than other animals but we just don't know how to access their intentions through communication.

grondilu 10y ago

Some form of brood parasitism, maybe? I mean it is known that orcas hunt whale calves and presumably this involves an instinctive reaction from the adults to the calf's distress signal. So perhaps various other preys have learnt to imitate this distress call in order to gain protection from what are possibly the only animals in the sea capable of fighting an orca. Or maybe whales just hate orcas and want them to starve.

Tosh108 10y ago

It's interesting that we have such a hard time accepting the emotion of altruism both in humans and animals. The author of the articles states: "could just be revenge". Revenge is in many ways more senseless then altruism for evolutionary purposes (unless you directly attack killer whales that threaten you, but one could argue that that's a form of self-defence), but from our ego perspective it feels more intuitive, at least to the author. There are also comments in this thread that reflect this way of thinking.

jdimov10 10y ago
I don't deny that altruism exists, but to me it's just another form of egoism. Nobody can convince me that they have ever done anything for ANY other reason than because of the belief that it will be good for them or that they'll get some sort of kick out of it. Not Mother Theresa, not anyone, ever. Because it's not possible. If you don't put your own interests first, you have nothing to give to others anyway. Moreover, people who are not egoists freak me out. To me, such people are the ultimate hypocrites and I fell that I can't trust them with anything.
- ceejayoz 10y ago
  > Nobody can convince me that they have ever done anything for ANY other reason than because of the belief that it will be good for them or that they'll get some sort of kick out of it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falling_on_a_grenade https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falling_on_a_grenade
  - jdimov10 10y ago
    That's called being an idiot. Your government has brainwashed you into thinking of such acts as noble and courageous. They are not. Acts like this do not deserve admiration or respect. Encouraging this in the name of "patriotism" is beyond despicable. But to get back to the point, as an individual, the only reason you would do something like this is because you feel better knowing that you have sacrificed your life to save other people's lives. Because, presumably, you couldn't live with yourself if you didn't. So if that's your way of dealing with the situation - that's fine, I guess. I still think you're an egoist for doing it.

genericacct 10y ago

On a similar note: last week i observed a group of seagulls relentlessly attacking a phantom quadcopter that was flying over their territory. The quad clearly wasn't trying to eat their offspring so it could be that the whales are just asserting their territorial rights..

celticninja 10y ago
asserting their rights by allowing a hunted seal to rest on its belly and helping it remain there by using its fins? Did you read the article before commenting?
- cosmicac 10y ago
  He could mean asserting its rights by not allowing other animals to hunt in its territory. I don't know if that is common behavior among animals though.
tantalor 10y ago
> a phantom quadcopter So, it was imaginary?
- enraged_camel 10y ago
  http://www.dji.com/product/phantom-3-pro http://www.dji.com/product/phantom-3-pro
HillaryBriss 10y ago
on many occasions, i've seen a dog mistake an empty plastic bag, pushed down the street by a breeze, for a dangerous threat to its existence. could seagulls have been making a similar mistake?

_Codemonkeyism 10y ago

Can we stop calling Orcas killer whales? Thanks.

doctorstupid 10y ago

It could be training practice for the protection of their own young.

er0l 10y ago

real whale wars!

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]