Enemies in the ocean have to fight each other thousands of miles apart. Why can't humpback whales and killer whales get along?

After hundreds of millions of years of evolution on the earth, the land and the ocean have each given birth to a variety of life. The difference between life and life can reach the level of subverting human cognition. For example, there are small insects like ants on land, while the size of whales in the ocean is hundreds of thousands or even millions of times that of ants. Behemoths have appeared in every biological history of the planet, from dinosaurs 65 million years ago to whales now.

The characteristics of creatures such as whales are not only large in size, but also in many species, so their living habits and personalities are also different. Different species of whales have different relationships, some competing with each other, some chasing each other, and some helping each other. In the vast ocean, there are two kinds of whales that seem to have formed a "feud". One of them is hunting, and the other tends to make trouble after it is discovered. They are humpback whales and killer whales.

So the question is, how do humpback whales know that killer whales are hunting? How do they disrupt killer whale hunts? Why do humpback whales do this?

What kind of creature is a humpback whale?

Although the humpback whale preys on the largest cetacean on earth, it is also a well-known behemoth among earth creatures. According to encyclopedia data, the average body length of male adult humpback whales reaches 12.9 meters, and the female body is longer, which can reach 13.7 meters. It is said that the current highest record is 18 meters long, which is equivalent to the size of half a basketball court. The average weight of humpback whales is about 25 to 30 tons. Even with such a huge body, they can still swim freely in the sea and can break out of the water to make a mid-air spin.

The humpback whale got its name because humpback whale means pipa in Japanese, which means that the humpback whale as a whole looks like a pipa. Its head is relatively small and flat, and its back is arched upwards, which looks like a lute, and some people refer to humpback whales as "bowback whales". The predation scene of humpback whales is very spectacular. It is an animal of this size who specializes in small animals such as krill, which sounds a bit cute.

Before hunting, humpback whales open their mouths, the upper and lower jaws of the mouth can form an angle of more than 90 degrees, then slowly approach the krill swarm, and finally eat them all in one bite. While eating the krill, the humpback also drinks a lot of seawater, but it doesn't actually drink all of it, but refilters it through the filter parts of its gills. Therefore, humpback whales disrupt the hunting of killer whales not to snatch the food of killer whales, because killer whales often feed on larger mammals such as dolphins and seals.

Studies have shown that humpback whales are highly social marine animals, and whether foraging or resting, several humpback whales are often seen together. Humpback whale populations have harmonious relationships, often expressing emotions by touching each other. But humpback whales also have moments of rage, and that's when they fight their enemies. This fight is a real physical attack, and regardless of the final result, humpback whales usually have broken flesh.

What kind of creature is a killer whale?

The name killer whale sounds like a kind of unpleasant whale, but in fact it is a member of the dolphin family, and it is the largest species in the dolphin family, which is why early humans saw it. As a kind of whale. According to Wikipedia, the average length of an adult male killer whale is about 8 meters, the largest record is 9.75 meters, and the weight can reach 5.5 tons. The average body length of an adult female killer whale is about 7 meters, with a maximum length of 8.5 meters.

The body of killer whales is spindle-shaped, the skin on the surface looks very smooth, and there is a thicker layer of fat under the skin. It can be seen that they mainly live in colder seas, such as polar seas and cold seas. Despite the size of the killer whale, it does look like a dolphin. Killer whales have distinctly colored bodies, usually black on the back and sides, and mostly white on the belly.

Unlike humpback whales, killer whales mainly prey on larger creatures such as penguins and seals, and sometimes they even dare to attack baleen whales and great white sharks. The reason why killer whales have such courage is on the one hand because of their large size, on the other hand because killer whales are a highly social group. Research has shown that a stable group of killer whales is like a small social group, and members of the group communicate hunting skills and transmit hunting signals to each other through vocal communication.

Killer whales vocalize in three ways: whistles, discrete calls, and clicks. Communication between different groups of killer whales usually takes the form of whistles and discrete calls, and each of these groups can produce unique sounds that sound different from other groups, like our dialects. The main function of the click sound is to help killer whales perform echolocation. Although killer whales have good eyesight, they can only find prey through echolocation in dark seas.

How Humpback Whales Disrupt Killer Whale Hunting

If there is one word to describe humpback whales, "Buddha" is the most suitable, and killer whales can be described as "fierce". These two seemingly unrelated animals are actually attacked by the Buddhist side. ferocious side. An eyewitness once observed a scene of a humpback whale "drawing a knife to help" rescue a pair of gray whale mother and child from the siege of killer whales. At first, he saw a group of killer whales chasing and killing a pair of gray whales, and suddenly appeared. A humpback whale, it tried its best to make a sound, and then four or five humpback whales appeared one after another.

The killer whales, who were originally focused on chasing the gray whales, saw several humpback whales blocking their way. They wanted to bypass them and continue to chase, but the humpback whales took the initiative to attack. Humpback whales look very bulky, but their attack power in the ocean should not be underestimated, because its extremely long flippers and tail can be used as weapons to attack the enemy, and sometimes it will use its head to ram the enemy . Under the fierce attack of several humpback whales, the killer whale gave up the pursuit of the gray whale.

Because at that time, the fighting between killer whales and humpback whales had already caused injuries on both sides. The killer whales were one head smaller than the humpback whales in size, and they were not dominant in number. There was no chance of winning if they continued to fight, so the killer whales Finally chose to give up. In fact, during the fight, the ferocious killer whales will make many counterattacks, but the humpback whales have thick skin and thick flesh. Also, you might wonder how humpback whales know that killer whales are chasing prey.

When killer whales find prey that is difficult to deal with alone, they usually make sounds to notify their companions, and they can gather more members to kill the prey with more certainty. It was the sound made by the killer whale that was received by the humpback whale during the pursuit. In fact, scientists did not know what information the humpback whale got from the sound of the killer whale. They only knew that they immediately dispatched after receiving the information, and Often do not stop without sabotaging killer whale hunting plans.

Why do humpback whales struggle with killer whales?

The behavior of humpback whales destroying killer whales has puzzled many marine animal experts. Why do they do this if they don't prey on killer whales? Later, through analysis, they defined this behavior of humpback whales as "altruistic behavior." Altruistic behavior occurs in both human groups and animal groups, usually at the expense of reducing their own fitness to improve the fitness of other individuals, where fitness is the general term for animal survivability, reproduction and offspring survivability.

Altruistic behavior among animals is often out of consideration for the reproduction and development of the population. Individuals with strong abilities usually sacrifice their energy or even their lives to save the next generation. Voluntarily take responsibility for teaching them to hunt and cooperate. There is also a kind of altruistic behavior that can be explained as "reciprocity", that is, one animal actively initiates altruistic behavior toward another animal, which is essentially to obtain another animal's reward, which may be food or mating. right.

However, scientists have found that these theories used to explain the altruistic behavior of other animals do not work in humpback whales, because humpback whales do not have a reciprocal symbiotic relationship with gray whales and other animals, and it helps other species. Whales also have no direct benefit to the offspring of their own population. Some scientists also believe that humpback whales are very "revenge" animals. Humpback whales are always hunted by killer whales when they are young. If the baby humpback whales are protected by their parents, the probability of survival is usually higher.

Because its parents lift it up with its head to avoid the killer whale. But in the process, the calf became familiar with the sound of the killer whale and realized that the killer whale was their enemy. Therefore, when small humpback whales grow into large humpback whales, they have a stronger ability to compete with killer whales, so every time they hear the sound of killer whales, they will realize that other animals are attacked by killer whales , and then "draw the knife to help" other animals.

Humpback whales "unaccustomed" to killer whales is a common phenomenon

It seems that it has become normal for humpback whales to "see" killer whales, as a team from the California Fisheries Science Center analyzed past conflicts between killer whales and humpback whales and found that 57% of the The incidents were all caused by the active attacks of humpback whales. About 10% of the incidents were caused by killer whales chasing and killing young humpback whales, and the remaining 90% were caused by killer whales chasing and killing other animals. Some even came from a few kilometers away to disrupt the hunting plan of killer whales. It seems that humpback whales are really "heroes in the green forest" in the ocean, and they are the opponents that killer whales don't want to meet.