Researchers puzzle over orca adopting – or kidnapping – a baby pilot whale

Watch the video: Orca adopts or kidnaps pilot whale baby

It is a unique sight: a baby pilot whale swims close to a female orca. When researchers on a whale watching ship in Iceland spot this unusual mother-child relationship, they are surprised. It is the first documented case of an orca being seen tending the offspring of another species. The researchers publish the observation in the Canadian Journal of Zoology. For 21 minutes, the scientists observe the female animal named Sædís and the cub that swims alongside her. “She showed protective and caring behavior towards the calf,” says orca researcher Marie-Therese Mruszock Pilot whales and killer whales are different species that cannot mate with each other. The cub was in poor physical condition and could not be fed by Sædís. In the nine years that researchers studying orcas have been observing, Saedis has never had a cub. The scientists suspect that the female was already too old for this. Another theory is that the cub was abducted by the orca. Because Sædís has been sighted several times near pilot whale schools, the researchers report. Even the aggressive behavior of the whales did not stop the female from approaching them again and again. Orcas are hunters who feed on other whales. Pilot whales are also on their menu. These protect themselves from the killer whales by driving them away or imitating the song of the marine mammals. The researchers cannot conclusively explain how the strange mother-child relationship came about. When Orca Saedis was sighted again a few months later, the young Pilot Whale was nowhere to be seen. Without milk, the cub had no chance of survival.

source site-1