Orca Spotted Caring For Baby Pilot Whale For The First Time Ever
Timothy Roberts
There are a lot of things happening under the sea, and much of it has questions attached to it. After all, you only see what happens on the surface, and there may be times when there are questions as to why something is happening.
That is the case with this video, which shows a female orca that seems to be caring for a young long-finned pilot whale.
Photo: The video shows the orca giving the pilot whale a ride in the waters near Western Iceland, almost as if she was caring for the young calf as her own.
Biologists who saw this happening and took the video had never seen this type of cross-species interaction before. It certainly is an interesting video, but they are wondering if it is a kidnapping or if the orca is actually caring for the young whale.
Photo: Pexels/marnock
Undoubtedly, killer whales are known for their reputation for doing what their name suggests. They are hunting machines. It isn't only humans that realize this. Even humpback whales have been known to stop orcas from hunting smaller mammals.
That is why there are so many questions surrounding what exactly is happening in the video. According to research published about the observation, the calf wasn't nursing but was swimming. It was also in position so that the orca was carrying the calf along with its energy.
Photo: It may be beautiful to speculate that an orca would care for a young animal such as this. However, when biologists returned the following year, the calf was gone, so it may not have turned out well.
The orca was seen swimming with a pod of pilot whales the following year, according to the research. The biologists feel that the orca may have been trying to snag another pilot whale calf, but the other whales in the pod didn't allow it to happen.
The close interaction between orcas and pilot whales is not unusual in the cold waters of Western Iceland. It has been seen from the land as well as from boats.
In one instance, the orcas were feeding on pilot whales, but there have also been reports that pilot whales were chasing orcas. This may have something to do with the fact that they both tend to target the same fish for food.
