The Soft Side of Killer Whales
Recent video footage of captive killer whales in Ontario shows that the animals perform a sort of reconciliation after apparent spats. 2800 hours of video were taken in which animal behaviorists identified 21 conflicts, several between a mother and father pair. The female would chase the male. The male would use "cartwheel" evasion tactics for several minutes. This would be followed by a period of separation between the two animals lasting about 10 minutes. After this "cooling off" period, the two would swim side by side in a manner known as echelon swimming. This involves the whales swimming parallel to each other for another ten minutes. Although animal behaviorists admit this doesn't necessarily imply a reconciliation, it certainly suggests a peacemaking between the two mammals. This is particularly interesting because wild killer whales do not behave in this same way.
While wild killer whales do practice echelon swimming, it is used after conflicts between whole pods of whales. The group will swim together suggesting that a social bond is being strengthened. The captive whale's adaptation of this use of echelon swimming may point to reconciliation behaviors evolving. The captive whales have learned this behavior in captivity so it is highly unlikely the behavior will be passed on. The captive whales are also unlikely to re released. This is interesting because this kind of peacemaking behavior has not been thought to have occurred in marine life. Humans obviously make up after fights, chimpanzees along with other primates have been known to do the same. This study suggests that perhaps the social interactions of whales are much more like our own than we could have imagined.
http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2006/816/3
Posted by Emily King (2)
posted by PWH @ 6:29 PM
2 comments
2 Comments:
This is such an interesting article. People have such a misrepresented view and understanding of these animals, it’s nice to see the humane side of them. It’s amazing that by observing the trainers these whales have come to adopt some of are behaviors. I’m very interested to see what other behaviors can be adopted and the further development of this emotional behavior.
But if these behaviors become instilled in whales in captivity, what happens in the off chance that a whale gets released back into the wild? Will these whales be vulnerable? Will the behaviors be passed through generations? What will all theses possibilities mean to the future of the killer whales? No matter what, the reconciliation behaviors of killer whales are something scientist should keep an eye out for in the future.
Posted by: Rachel McMahon
Killer whale is such a bad common name for these animals. We don't go around calling lions killer lions, or dolphins killer dolphins. All the behaviors they exhibit are functional to them as a species. Although known to kill fellow dolphins from time to time, they are definitely not the only animal to kill indiscriminately. As this post clearly shows, there is a softer side to these "killers"
posted by; Han Beeth Kim (2)
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