On August 12, 2021, scientists aboard a whale-watching ship in Iceland spotted something unprecedented: a female orca, named. CastesA pilot swimming with a baby whale, A species Different from you. reported to have been found in study Recently published in the magazine Canadian Journal of Zoology. According to researchers, this is the first time a pilot whale has swum side-by-side with an orca, also known as a killer whale.
There is no documentation for that Castes has had any offspring, and scientists believe that this animal cares for the offspring of another species as a “substitute” for its own. Another theory put forward by scientists is that the killer whale may have suffered a late miscarriage or lost a newborn calf. A team of scientists raised this possibility, but cautioned that “there is no data to support this idea.”
Orca Guardians
Social structures and maternal relationships of orcas (Orcinus orca) and pilot whales (Globicephala melas) are similar, so this observational relationship between the two species is not impossible. But this is the first time the scientific community has seen the affectionate relationship between orcas and pilot whales.
Researchers don’t know if this was an interspecies adoption after the pilot whale calf was orphaned or abandoned by its parents, or if the calf was “abducted” from its parents by the killer whale.
“There are many possibilities… but we can say with certainty that the female was exhibiting protective behavior towards the baby pilot whale,” he told the newspaper. Guardian The study’s lead author, Marie-Thérèse Mruszczak, saw the meeting of the two species. “I immediately realized that something was strange,” says the researcher, recalling the day the pilot saw an orca caring for a baby whale. It was amazing. “If these animals are capable of caring for other species, that’s another level of empathy.”
Although there are other documented interactions between the two species, these relationships are usually predation and harassment. But this case is different: a baby pilot whale was found under the protection of an orca on the Snaafells Peninsula in Iceland. They were seen swimming in a group with two adult killer whales for more than 20 minutes.
Castes It was spotted twice months later, neither time with the pilot whale. In the summer of 2022, the orca was observed interacting with other pilot whales.
Text edited by Claudia Carvalho Silva