Imagine sitting in a boat off the coast of British Columbia when an orca silently glides alongside. In its mouth, a harbor seal—freshly killed. The orca opens its jaws and lets the seal slip into the water, right at your feet. Then, it waits.

This is not a scene from a movie. It’s one of 34 real encounters recorded over two decades across four oceans, where wild orcas have been observed offering prey to humans, according to a study in the Journal of Comparative Psychology.

Wild orcas have been documented offering food to humans in the ocean.

Not an Accident, Not a Game

To be included in the study, each event had to meet strict standards. The orcas had to initiate contact. The prey had to be dropped voluntarily, close enough to be unmistakably for the human recipient. Then, the whale waited to see what would happen next. In many cases, they retrieved the offering if it was ignored or rejected—sometimes trying again, like a child pushing a toy into a parent’s hand.

As Bangor Daily News reports, researchers ruled out play behavior. These weren’t brief, distracted incidents. The whales, young and old, appeared intentional and observant in their interactions.

Jared Towers of Bay Cetology described one instance where a transient orca known as T046C2 surfaced beside his vessel and released a freshly killed seal pup just inches from the boat. He and his colleagues were so surprised they momentarily froze, watching as the animal circled back and retrieved the seal again. The moment, he told Global News, left him and his team stunned and contemplative.

These interactions happened in four different oceans over a 20-year period.

Something Like a Gift

Orcas are already known for sharing food among themselves—an ingrained part of their social culture. That they might extend this behavior to humans hints at a remarkable cognitive leap. According to the Anchorage Daily News, researcher Vanessa Prigollini believes the behavior shows the whales may be attempting to form some kind of connection outside their own species.

The menu offerings ranged widely—eagle rays, harbor seals, turtles, starfish, and even jellyfish. In some cases, recipients were divers. In others, boaters. On rare occasions, people stood on shore as an orca surfaced and offered them part of its catch, Phys.org reports.

Ingrid Visser, a scientist with the Orca Research Trust, participated in documenting several of these incidents. She views the behavior as a rare example of interspecies social outreach, emphasizing how significant it is to witness a wild predator initiate such gestures toward humans.

The animals approached humans voluntarily, without provocation or bait.

A Cultural Conversation

Animal behavior expert Carl Safina told Bangor Daily News that the behavior could be an indication that orcas may perceive humans as having minds worth interacting with. He suggested that orcas seem more willing to recognize the intelligence of other beings—perhaps more so than humans do—and may even navigate social awareness more naturally than we do.

Towers echoed this sentiment in his discussion with Global News, saying the experiences changed the way he views the animals. After so many routine observations over the years, these rare gestures of interaction felt deeply personal and profound to him—experiences that lingered long after the moment had passed.

Each time, the orca dropped freshly killed prey within reach of the person.

Respect the Gesture, Respect the Distance

Still, researchers urge caution. As moving as these moments are, the study warns against encouraging orcas to interact closely with people. As The Chroma Science notes, even the most thoughtful encounter can go wrong when one species misreads the other. Towering intellect aside, killer whales remain top-level predators. And humans, as history has proven, often don’t know how to handle wild kindness.

The study doesn’t assign one clean motive to the orcas. Were they curious? Practicing social learning? Testing human behavior? Possibly all of it. The point is—these weren’t mistakes.