Orca Beauty Routine Astonishes Researchers
- Editor OGN Daily
- 21 minutes ago
- 2 min read
Killer whales have joined the rare club of animals that can make and use tools.
For the first time, orcas have been observed crafting a kind of brush out of kelp and then using it on fellow pod members. The feat - incredibly rare for marine animals - was seen and captured by researchers from the Center for Whale Research (CWR) based in Washington state, adding to the quirky behaviours already observed in this intelligent and often maligned species.
“We found that southern resident killer whales regularly use lengths of bull kelp during social interactions, apparently as a tool to groom one another,” said Michael Weiss from CWR. “To find that the whales were not just using but also manufacturing tools, and that these objects were being used in a way never before reported in marine mammals, was incredibly exciting.”
The scientists saw first-hand how resident orcas off the west coast of North America were sourcing kelp and breaking pieces off the plants, then pressing it against another killer whale's body. The animals were then seen moving so the kelp rolled across their skin, which they believe to be a form of grooming.
What's more, the behaviour - which was observed by the researchers gathering images and data from an aircraft above - was seen en masse, across male and female individuals and in young and mature animals. And the orcas that appeared to have more prominent molting or skin issues were most involved in this communal kelp scrub, suggesting that it does indeed have a specific hygiene-related root cause.
As earlier studies have found, orcas have complex social behaviors that suggest there's a lot about their communication and cognition we are yet to fully understand. Various learned "tricks" specific to different populations of killer whales - the largest species in the dolphin family - have been seen by researchers across the globe, but tool-making is a completely new endeavour for these elusive marine animals.
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