Latest news with #JaredTowers
Miami Herald
40 minutes ago
- Science
- Miami Herald
Orcas seen giving food to humans, study says. Is it kindness or something else?
In the fall of 2018, a lone killer whale approached a boat in the Pacific Ocean. It didn't attack the vessel — as has happened numerous times in recent years. Instead, it offered up an unexpected gift. The apex predator 'dropped a dead whole harbor seal directly under where we were standing,' Jared Towers, the director of Bay Cetology, told McClatchy News. After delivering the carcass, the orca slowly swam a lap around the boat, perhaps waiting to see what would happen. But, when no one onboard took an interest in the free meal, it snapped the prey back up and promptly devoured it. This curious behavior, it turns out, was not an anomaly. In fact, it has happened more than two dozen times across four oceans, according to a study published June 30 in the American Psychological Association. 'The accounts of killer whales offering prey and other items to humans presented here, suggest that these are not isolated events but rather, represent a unique form of behavior that has been selected for in this species,' the authors wrote. What exactly motivates orcas to give gifts to humans is unclear, but it could stem from kindness, curiosity or even — more ominously — a 'Machiavellian' impulse. Gift-giving orcas To conduct the study, a team of researchers collected data on worldwide human-orca interactions that occurred between 2004 and 2024. In total, they uncovered 34 separate accounts of wild orcas offering up prey to people situated on boats, in the water or on shore. These took place off the coasts of North and South America, Europe and Australia. The marine predators served up 18 species of wildly different sizes, including a sea star, a spotted jelly, a sea otter, an ocean sunfish and a gray whale. In nearly all of the cases, the orcas delivering the offerings were part of larger group. And in every case but one, they stuck around to see how the humans would react. In some instances, people retrieved the dead animal before placing it back in the ocean. After this happened, on two occasions, the orcas proved persistent, placing the prey back in front of the people. Kindness or something else? Researchers hypothesized a handful of factors that could play into the orcas' gift-giving behavior. 'There are a few drivers of this behavior to consider,' Towers said. 'First, killer whales often kill large prey which means they often have surplus.' Because killer whales can end up with more food than they can consume in one sitting — and since they lack ways to transport or preserve prey — it may quickly lose its value, meaning it can be discarded. 'Second, sharing of resources is foundational to their evolution so sharing with us may be a way to practice learned cultural behavior,' Towers said. And, 'third, killer whales have massive brains which they apparently use to explore the behavior of other animals in their environment (like us).' In short, the killer whales may just be charitable or curious. But, there's still one other option that could help explain the whales' peculiar behavior. 'While seemingly prosocial and altruistic, it can also not be ruled out that these cases were Machiavellian in nature,' the authors wrote, indicating the orcas could be attempting to manipulate humans. They noted that killer whales in captivity have been documented using dead prey as bait to lure other species near in order to kill them. That said, no humans have ever been killed by wild orcas. And, while interesting, Towers also cautioned that this behavior is unlikely to be that widespread in orcas. 'I think it's important to recognize that although there are a number of cases of orcas attempting to provision people around the world,' Towers said, 'that these cases are very rare and are usually documented by people who spend a lot of time studying wild orcas.'
Forbes
6 hours ago
- Science
- Forbes
Wild Orcas Sometimes Offer To Share Their Lunch With Humans
They amuse us by wearing salmon hats, enrage us by sinking our expensive yachts, and now they have been documented sharing their meals with us – why? Food sharing amongst orcas can also be extended to include food sharing with humans. (Credit: Jared ... More Towers with kind permission.) A recent report reveals that wild orcas, Orcinus orca, also known as killer whales, sometimes offer food to humans, according to the report's lead author, Jared Towers, executive director of Bay Cetology, a whale research organization based in British Columbia. Orcas are the oceans' apex predators – the top predators in the seas – and they have correspondingly large brains that are second only to humans in relation to their body size. So clearly, they are capable of advanced communication skills (even including mimicking human speech; more here), cognition and emotional intelligence. Furthermore, prey sharing is common in orca culture, so maybe sharing their lunch with humans is not really so strange after all. In fact, throughout the world, orcas of every age have presented prey to humans, and just about everything was on the menu: from sea otters, harbor seals, and gray whales, to green turtles, eagle rays, starfish, jellyfish, and even common murres, just to name a few species. F I G U R E 1 : Spatial and Temporal Overview of Provisioning Attempts Note. (A) The locations of ... More each offering. (B) The timeline of events by geographic region. ENA = Eastern North Atlantic; ENP = Eastern North Pacific; ETP = Eastern Tropical Pacific; WSA = Western South Atlantic; WSP = Western South Pacific. Dr Towers, along with a team of researchers from Aotearoa New Zealand and Mexico investigated 34 interactions that occurred during the past 20 years when wild orcas attempted to share prey with people in various locations of the Pacific and Atlantic oceans from California to Norway to Patagonia (Figure 1). F I G U R E 2 : Locations of People and Status of Prey During Provisioning Attempts Note. (A) Where ... More people were located when offerings were made in each geographic region. (B) The status and condition of items being offered by geographic region. ENP = Eastern North Pacific; ETP = Eastern Tropical Pacific; WSP = Western South Pacific; WSA = Western South Atlantic; ENA = Eastern North Atlantic. For this study, Dr Towers and collaborators only included incidents that met particular criteria: the whales had to have approached the people on their own volition rather than the people closely approaching the whales, and dropped the prey item in front of them. It's interesting to point out that in all but one of the cases, the orcas waited to see what would happen after they made the offering, and in seven cases, the orcas tried more than once to offer the prey item after the people initially refused it. On 11 of the occasions, people were in the water when the orcas approached them, in 21 cases, they were on boats, and in two cases they were on the shore (Figure 2). Some of the interactions were captured on video and in photos; others were described in interviews with the researchers. A pair of wild Orcas breaching in Alaskan coastal waters. (Via PickPik / CC0, Public domain.) Clearly, the orcas have a reason for sharing food with humans, but what is it? 'Orcas often share food with each other – it's a prosocial activity and a way that they build relationships with each other,' Dr Towers explained. 'That they also share with humans may show their interest in relating to us as well.' According to Dr Towers and collaborators, this altruistic behavior makes sense because orcas are intelligent and highly social animals that use food sharing as a way to build relationships with kin as well as unrelated individuals. Further, because orcas often hunt prey much larger than themselves, they may sometimes have food to spare. 'I suspect that individual killer whales from several populations around the world having been documented offering people prey reflects how foundational prey sharing and any associated reciprocity is to the evolution of the species (like it is in humans),' Dr Towers told me in email. 'This said, some populations do it more than others, which is not surprising given their differing levels of dietary specialization, resource availability, etc.' Orca dorsal fin with West Point lighthouse in background. (Credit: Discovery Park Staff, Seattle ... More Parks and Recreation / CC BY 4.0) As a native of Seattle, I was disappointed to learn that the local wild orca family pods (sometimes known as 'resident orcas' to distinguish them from the more widely roaming 'transient orcas') have never been known to share their lunches with humans – although they are famous for wearing 'salmon hats' on their heads. 'Some readers may wonder if resident orcas have ever been documented offering people food and if not, why. The answer is no, they have not, despite decades of research on them,' Dr Towers told me in email. 'This may be because being strict dietary specialists they have less to gain through exploratory behaviour to acquire general knowledge in their environment. Furthermore, there may be times when they can not afford to share their food because their prey resources are often limited.' Family of orcas swimming near an expensive yacht that may be fleeing from them That said, it is interesting to note that another group of orcas – naughty, mischievous orcas – living along the Iberian Peninsula and coastal Spain that seem to delight in sinking rich people's yachts will sometimes offer people chunks of tuna. How should people react if an orca tries to share food with them? Although the behavior is rare, Dr Towers says that you should document the interaction either with photographs or film, without touching the offering, and share it with the behavioral scientists at Bay Centology so we can learn more about this unusual behavior. What do these examples of wild orcas offering to share their lunches with us tell us about them? 'I think in some cases these whales are very curious and this is just highlighting exactly how curious they can become,' Dr Towers replied. '[K]iller whales are very complex and evolved animals,' Dr Towers added, 'and that we should consider this when it comes to co-existing with them as top apex predators of different biomes on this planet.' Source: Jared R. Towers , Ingrid N. Visser, and Vanessa Prigollini (2025). Testing the Waters: Attempts by Wild Killer Whales (Orcinus orca) to Provision People (Homo sapiens), Journal of Comparative Psychology | doi:10.1037/com0000422 © Copyright by GrrlScientist | hosted by Forbes | Socials: Bluesky | CounterSocial | LinkedIn | Mastodon Science | MeWe | Spoutible | SubStack | Threads | Tumblr | Twitter
Asharq Al-Awsat
16 hours ago
- Science
- Asharq Al-Awsat
Killer Whales Found Sharing Food with Humans
Killer whales sometimes offer to share their prey with people, a new study finds, hinting that some intelligent orcas may be attempting to develop relationships with humans. Pet animals such as cats sometimes leave prey at their owner's feet or doorstep, often as a display of affection or as a sense of sharing food with 'family.' But such behavior hadn't been documented among animals in the wild. Until now, that is. The new study documenting orcas offering food to humans in the wild challenges assumptions about animal social behavior, revealing a poorly understood interplay between marine mammals and humans that's playful and social. In the new study, published in the Journal of Comparative Psychology, and reported by The Independent newspaper, researchers from Canada, New Zealand, and Mexico document 34 interactions over two decades involving orcas attempting to offer food to humans. These incidents took place across the world, in the oceans off California, New Zealand, Norway, and Patagonia. 'Orcas often share food with each other. It's a prosocial activity and a way that they build relationships with each other,' study lead author Jared Towers said. 'That they also share with humans may show their interest in relating to us as well.' The researchers analyzed each of the 34 instances of food sharing and found that people were in the water when the orcas approached them on 11 occasions. In 21 instances the humans were on boats and in two instances they were on the shore. In each of these cases, the killer whales approached the people on their own and dropped their prey in front of them. 'This behavior may represent some of the first accounts of a wild predator intentionally using prey, and other items, to directly explore human behavior,' the researchers wrote. 'These features all suggest that killer whales possess the capacity and motivation to share for multiple reasons which could include short– or long-term tangible, intellectual, or emotional benefits, none of which are mutually exclusive.' The researchers also found that the orcas waited around to see what would happen after they made the offering to humans in all but one instance. The marine mammals also tried to be persuasive, offering the food more than once in seven cases after the people initially refused it. Since orcas are intelligent and social animals, the researchers suspect food sharing may be a way to build relationships with kin and unrelated individuals. As the killer whales often hunt large prey, they have food to spare. 'Offering items to humans could simultaneously include opportunities for killer whales to practice learned cultural behavior, explore or play and, in so doing, learn about, manipulate or develop relationships with us,' the study said. The study also showed that, 'Given the advanced cognitive abilities and social, cooperative nature of this species, we assume that any or all these explanations for, and outcomes of such behavior are possible.'
Yahoo
a day ago
- Science
- Yahoo
Wild orcas will sometimes offer food to humans
Orcas (Orcinus orca) don't appear to be big fans of yachts, but some of them may be curious about humans themselves. According to a study published on June 30 in the Journal of Comparative Psychology, cetology researchers have confirmed dozens of instances of killer whales intentionally approaching people and offering them food—a behavior they typically reserve for building bonds between orca pods. 'Orcas often share food with each other—it's a prosocial activity and a way that they build relationships with each other,' Jared Towers, a study lead author and executive director of the British Columbia-based research organization Bay Cetology said in a statement. 'That they also share with humans may show their interest in relating to us as well.' Towers collaborated with Vanessa Prigollini at Mexico's Marine Education Association along with killer whale expert Ingrid Visser at the Orca Research Trust in New Zealand to collect incidents of the apex predators voluntarily meeting people. They ultimately confirmed 34 events spanning the last two decades. In total, 11 instances involved orcas approaching humans swimming in water, 21 cases occurred while people were on boats, and another two examples were recorded from shore. However, the researchers didn't simply take witnesses at their word. In order to be included in the study, a potential documentation needed to meet stringent criteria after reviewing any video and photographic evidence, as well as subject interviews. In each event, the orcas must have approached humans of their own volition, then dropped an item in front of them. The whales varied in both age and sex, but all except one appeared to wait for a reaction. In some cases, they even reattempted their food offers—a mix of fish, mammals, invertebrates, birds, as well as one reptile and one piece of seaweed. 'Offering items to humans could simultaneously include opportunities for killer whales to practice learned cultural behavior, explore or play and in so doing learn about, manipulate or develop relationships with us,' the researchers wrote in the study. 'Giving the advanced cognitive abilities and social, cooperative nature of this species, we assume that any or all these explanations for, and outcomes of such behavior are possible.' The team added these may be the first in-depth descriptions of non-domesticated animals behaving in ways that are usually reserved for household pets like cats and dogs. They may also mark the first accounts of wild predators purposefully employing prey and other objects to 'directly explore human behavior.' If true, these instances 'may highlight the evolutionary convergence of intellect between highest order primates and dolphins.'
CBC
a day ago
- Science
- CBC
Orcas might be trying to learn 'who we are' when they share prey with humans, study suggests
Jared Towers was in his research vessel on two separate occasions watching killer whales off the coast of Vancouver Island when the orcas dropped their prey directly in front of him and his colleagues. The encounters he describes as "rare" and awe-inspiring have led to a new study published in the peer-reviewed Journal of Comparative Psychology, detailing researchers' experiences with killer whales apparently sharing their food with humans. "We have a long history of interacting with other animals, trying to feed them and gauging their responses. But it's very rare for any wild predator to do the same to us," said Towers, who is the executive director of the research group Bay Cetology. "This is really the first report of any kind in the literature documenting these cases for killer whales." Towers says he and his colleagues were cruising along when an orca appeared, setting off the second encounter in 2018. They stopped and watched it swim around before it reappeared and released a freshly killed seal next to the boat. "She could have dropped it off the stern or the bow, but she dropped it right in the middle of the vessel, right next to us," Towers said. "We just sat there watching this thing sink down into the water for about 10 or 15 seconds until she did a bit of a circle and came back and picked it up." It followed an encounter in 2015 that involved an orca opening its mouth and releasing a dead ancient murrelet, a kind of seabird, directly beside Towers's boat. He says that orca also left its prey floating for a few moments before taking it again. "It left us a bit awestruck," said Towers, adding the two cases stand out among the thousands of encounters with killer whales he's had around the world. "I started to think about these animals a bit differently at that point." Towers and his colleagues began an investigation that led to the study published on Monday, which examines 34 instances in which killer whales around the world appeared to offer their prey to humans. The researchers wanted to ensure the study only examined cases where whales were "going out of their way to engage with people rather than vice versa," said Towers, who is based in Alert Bay, B.C., off northeastern Vancouver Island. In order to be included in the study, the whales had to approach humans directly. Researchers considered cases where people had not approached the whales at a distance closer than 50 metres in the five minutes prior to the interaction taking place. In all but one of the situations, the study says the whales were observed waiting for people to respond before either recovering or abandoning their prey. "These weren't mistakes. They weren't like the killer whales accidentally dropped the food. They wanted to see how people responded," Towers said. The study does not rule out any selfish motivations behind the behaviour. But Towers says he feels the apparent prey sharing is "altruistic" and "pro-social." Sharing food among relatives and other orcas is foundational for the whales, and in attempting to provision humans with prey, he says it could be an example of the whales practicing a cultural behaviour or exploring humans' capacity to respond. WATCH | Orca whales spotted off Cape Breton in 'once in a lifetime' experience: Orca whales spotted off Cape Breton in 'once in a lifetime' experience 26 days ago Duration 0:52 "I think these cases may really be pro-social representations of conscious learning where these whales are going out of their way to actually try and understand ... who we are and how we might interact with them in their environment," Towers said. Given the advanced cognitive abilities and the social, co-operative nature of killer whales as a species, the study says the researchers "assume that any or all these explanations for, and outcomes of, such behaviour are possible." The whales in the study were transient orcas off the coasts of B.C. and Alaska, the Eastern Tropical Pacific population off the coast of California, along with killer whales around New Zealand, central Argentina and Norway. All of the "offering" events took place between 2004 and 2024, the study says. Orcas commonly use prey to engage in play, and the study acknowledges that 38 per cent of the prey-sharing cases it examined appeared to incorporate play. The whales may have been using their prey to instigate play with humans, it says. But for several reasons, the study says the researchers do not believe play was the driving factor behind the apparent offerings. WATCH | The moment an orca 'moonwalked' off the coast of West Vancouver: #TheMoment an orca 'moonwalked' off the coast of West Vancouver 22 days ago Duration 1:18 Allison MacGillivary recounts the moment she and her family spotted a killer whale swimming backwards off the shoreline in West Vancouver. Play often occurs after whales have met their nutritional needs, but in the cases of prey sharing with humans, the offerings were whole in about half of the encounters. The orcas in the study mostly recovered the prey after it wasn't accepted by humans and often went on to share it with other whales. In most cases, the interactions did not last longer than 30 seconds. By contrast, the study says the whales typically engage in play more continuously. The study concludes the whales possess the capacity and motivation to share food for multiple reasons that could include intellectual or emotional benefits. "Offering items to humans could simultaneously include opportunities for killer whales to practice learned cultural behaviour, explore or play and in so doing learn about, manipulate or develop relationships with us," it said. Towers says he hopes the study provides an opportunity for people to look at killer whales in a different light, sparking curiosity about their capacity to think "and perhaps even have some convergent evolution of intellect with us." The researchers strongly discourage people from accepting any prey offered by orcas, due to the potential for both species to harm one another, Towers added.
