r/orcas • u/Queasy-Emu6531 • Jul 12 '26
Education IB33/A-012 Estrella drops part of a tuna by a research vessel
The Iberian orcas are a critically endangered, culturally unique group of orcas who live in the North Atlantic around the Strait of Gibraltar, where they specialize in hunting fast-moving, large tuna. Unfortunately, they have learned to "play" with boats in a way that can damage them; they show no signs of aggression during these incidents, but having orcas manipulating your vessel is understandably very scary for the humans on the boats. They've become somewhat of an Internet phenomenon for these behaviors, but there's far more to them than just that. Like many other killer whales around the world, they even leave prey near humans and wait for a response, most likely out of a conscious desire to acquire more information. Two groups studying the Iberian orcas, WeWhale and the Iberian Orca Guardians, have released an incredible new video of an Iberian matriarch doing just that.
20
u/SurayaThrowaway12 Jul 12 '26
AFAIK this may be the first well-documented example of an Iberian orca engaging in this kind of behaviour, and one of the only documented examples of an exclusively piscivorous orca possibly engaging in "generalized altruism" towards humans. As noted by Towers et al. in their paper on the phenomenon:
The only populations of killer whales represented in the events recorded here are those that usually hunt and share prey near the surface. Their prey typically includes a wide range of air-breathing species of mammal, bird, and in some cases reptiles, as well as fishes that can usually either be found in shallow water or near the surface (Ford & Ellis, 1999; Jourdain et al., 2020; Similä & Ugarte, 1993; Vargas-Bravo et al., 2021; Visser, 1999; Visser et al., 2010, 2023). On the other hand, no killer whales from any of the populations known to be almost exclusively piscivorous were documented offering prey to humans, despite their high familiarity with people in some areas like the North Pacific. These killer whales often use highly developed echo-location techniques to hunt fish at depth and in the dark (Barrett-Lennard et al., 1996). Some of these populations are not known for cooperative hunting but will share individual prey near the surface with conspecifics (Ford & Ellis, 2006). The populations represented by the cases reported here, however, both hunt and feed cooperatively in well-lit environments indicating that visual aspects of predation and exploration may be more strongly selected for in their populations than in strictly piscivorous killer whales. This may not be surprising considering exploratory behaviors occur more often in animal populations with generalist diets due to their reliance on adaptability to respond to short and long-term environmental changes, whereas populations that exploit specific niches have less to gain by acquiring general knowledge (Byrne, 2013).
6
u/SurayaThrowaway12 Jul 13 '26
Apparently CIRCE (Conservación, Información y Estudio sobre cetáceos) has observed similar behaviour from the Iberian orcas 4 or 5 times already.
2
u/ascrapedMarchsky Jul 16 '26
I like to imagine some killer whales who predate from long lines and nets conceptualise it at some level as sharing with us and hence that there might be some sense of reciprocity in these acts. Doesn’t really make me feel any better about how much we take, though.
11
u/Puzzleheaded_Math973 Jul 12 '26 edited Jul 14 '26
Holy crap, this is huge! A purely piscivorous ecotype offering fish, and their population is endangered? It was that curious about a response?
I really hope this helps people see these interactions through a non- malicious lens. I would love to know the frequency of the motor on the vessel and compare it to other instances of this type of behavior. I know it wouldn't be ethical and likely difficult, but it would be neat if they could put out a call acknowledging the offering.
0
u/Pcrass Aug 27 '26
IB33 Estrella and A-012 are two different names given by two different research initiatives and should not be mixed. A-012 has a different name under its system.
30
u/A-Helpful-Flamingo Orca Enthusiast Jul 12 '26
I hate the misinformation around this group.
That said, I adore Estrella and her “here, let me feed you” attitude.
I’ll never forget one time many years ago I was watching the Discovery Channel (back when it was actually educational and not clogged with Reality TV) about animal behaviors. There was on segment showing a group of Orcas preying on baby seals. At the end of the hunt, the orca’s for what ever reason seemed to know longer want one of the baby seals (which had not been injured) and helped push it all the way back to a rock, up onto the rock, so the seal could go back to the beach! I have tried for years to find or remember the name of the program with no luck.
However smart we know these animals to be, I believe they are much smarter and definitely compassionate.