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Science Idle

Why Do Killer Whales Keep Handing Us Fish? Scientists Unpack the Mystery (sciencedaily.com) 62

Posted by EditorDavid from the thanks-for-all-the-fish dept.
Science Daily reports: Wild orcas across four continents have repeatedly floated fish and other prey to astonished swimmers and boaters, hinting that the ocean's top predator likes to make friends. Researchers cataloged 34 such gifts over 20 years, noting the whales often lingered expectantly — and sometimes tried again — after humans declined their offerings, suggesting a curious, relationship-building motive...

"Orcas often share food with each other — it's a prosocial activity and a way that they build relationships with each other," said study lead author Jared Towers, of Bay Cetology in British Columbia, Canada. "That they also share with humans may show their interest in relating to us as well."
The complete research was published in the Journal of Comparative Psychology. Its title? "Testing the Waters: Attempts by Wild Killer Whales (Orcinus orca) to Provision People (Homo sapiens)."

Why Do Killer Whales Keep Handing Us Fish? Scientists Unpack the Mystery More | Reply

Why Do Killer Whales Keep Handing Us Fish? Scientists Unpack the Mystery

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  • Other cases in the animal kingdom. (Score:4, Funny)

    by meandmatt ( 2741421 ) on Saturday July 05, 2025 @01:42PM (#65499536)
    I always try to offer worms to Fish but they also turn me down.
    • lol, no they don't.

      • lol, no they don't.

        Maybe they wanted to broaden their palate. Try some foreign cuisine.

        • Trumps wife is a Foreigner, just saying. I wouldn't mind eating her.
          • This is the best you can lust for? Aim for something actually attractive.
    • No they don't.
      One theory is that we are not tasty - too boney.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Calydor ( 739835 )

      A few very isolated incidents from orcas in captivity. That's the same as saying dogs as a whole are dangerous because a few go insane.

    • Couldn't it be just a bribe? Don't tell anyone you saw us.
  • I think that is very cool and precious. https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]

  • Give fish to them (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Iamthecheese ( 1264298 ) on Saturday July 05, 2025 @02:03PM (#65499572)
    The point at which some environmentalism reveals itself as misanthropy is where "don't feed the animals" is commanded because it's "unnatural." This stance overlooks that humans are a part of nature, not separate from it. Barring legitimate safety concerns, like habituating bears to human sites, there is nothing inherently wrong with developing relationships, even co-dependencies and forms of partial domestication, with wild animals. Such interactions can represent a form of interspecies mutualism, a concept well-documented in biology, where different species form beneficial partnerships. History, too, offers examples of co-evolution, such as the relationship between humans and the ancestors of domestic dogs. The argument that animals "don't understand what humans are like" is paternalistic. They understand what they like and, as the orca study suggests, are capable of initiating interaction based on their own complex social logics. To deny them this agency is to deny their intelligence and autonomy. They can choose to interact or not, to the limits of their abilities; let them make that choice. This aligns with philosophical arguments for animal autonomy, which posit that sentient beings with preferences should have those preferences respected. The appeal to "naturalness" is a flawed premise in the Anthropocene, an epoch defined by human alteration of all ecosystems. There is no longer a "pure" nature to which we can defer. The insistence on a hands-off policy often stems from a puritanical, almost religious, reverence for a "Sacred" nature that must remain untouched by humanity. This view secretly frames humans as a blight, a contamination from which the world must be cordoned off. It is a philosophy of alienation, not of responsible cohabitation. The fear that a friendly whale, offering fish as a gesture of friendship, might suddenly attack boats is not just unfounded; it actively dismisses the animal's observed intent. It is a projection of human fears onto a situation that the animals themselves are defining as peaceful. This is not to ignore all risks, but to challenge a risk-averse dogma that precludes the possibility of positive, unprecedented relationships. The real debate should be about fostering a more nuanced ethic of interaction, one that respects animal agency and acknowledges our shared and entangled future on this planet, rather than one that capitulates to a deep-seated misanthropy that ultimately desires a world with fewer people in it.

    • The point at which some environmentalism reveals itself as misanthropy is where "don't feed the animals" is commanded because it's "unnatural."

      Well it can result in unnatural behavior, like a lack of fear of humans, which can lead to the animal's death. This extends far beyond your bear example.

      This stance overlooks that humans are a part of nature, not separate from it.

      I think humans feeding other predators is more the exception not the rule. Sure we did it with wolves and ended up with dogs. But wolves accepting the gesture of friendship paid a heavy price. The alpha leaning probably ended up in the stew pot, the beta leaning more likely to be kept around. We brutally bred the wolves for submissiveness. I'd reconsider yo

      • But wolves accepting the gesture of friendship paid a heavy price. The alpha leaning probably ended up in the stew pot, the beta leaning more likely to be kept around. We brutally bred the wolves for submissiveness. I'd reconsider your dog example. The fish, it's a "trap". :-)

        The alpha/beta thing is completely debunked. When you rip animals from their families and throw them into a cage to fight for scraps you might find more alpha and beta like behaviors but in the wild, when not treated unnaturally by humans, they form family groups. There isn’t some large male using violence to get its way with every thing and every one, that’s what happens when humans get involved. Instead they tend to be highly cooperative.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by drnb ( 2434720 )

          But wolves accepting the gesture of friendship paid a heavy price. The alpha leaning probably ended up in the stew pot, the beta leaning more likely to be kept around. We brutally bred the wolves for submissiveness. I'd reconsider your dog example. The fish, it's a "trap". :-)

          The alpha/beta thing is completely debunked.

          Sorry, no. The alpha male is debunked. There are occasionally alpha females.

          Wolves are strictly hierarchal. Reinforced and recognized through daily actions. From feeding order to daily submissive gestures. Some wolves will be occasionally test to see if they can improve their rank, alphas. Some will not and just accept their position, betas.

          When you rip animals from their families and throw them into a cage to fight for scraps you might find more alpha and beta like behaviors but in the wild, when not treated unnaturally by humans, they form family groups.

          The pack is often biological family to a large degree, with some adoptions. However the hierarchy I referred to above is referring to wolves in the wild. It is their

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by PPH ( 736903 )

      I need one of these signs [sigosigns.com] but for the homeless.

    • Given enough time in their evolution (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Latent Heat ( 558884 ) on Saturday July 05, 2025 @04:25PM (#65499858)

      orcas may even learn how to format a Slashdot post into paragraphs?

      • Unfortunately, they'll likely be using Unicode for their native language. This won't work so well with Slashdot.

    • The point at which some environmentalism reveals itself as misanthropy is where "don't feed the animals" is commanded because it's "unnatural."

      Most "don't feed the animals" rules are because people tend to feed animals "unnatural" foods like processed grains and meats, which aren't safe for the animals to eat.

  • And no cat owner is surprised (Score:4, Insightful)

    by drnb ( 2434720 ) on Saturday July 05, 2025 @02:06PM (#65499584)
    And no cat owner who has received certain gifts from a cat are surprised. :-)
    • I had a cat give me a bird almost every other day. I know that in their mind they were giving me a gift. I had to give her away to the humane society. however, wow, that is a nice gift from a cats point of view.

      • Re:And no cat owner is surprised (Score:4, Funny)

        by OrangeTide ( 124937 ) on Saturday July 05, 2025 @02:21PM (#65499622) Homepage Journal

        It's a backhanded gift. Your cat thinks you're in incompetent hunter and is trying to help you because he/she feels sorry for you.

        • after many thousands of hours holding and loving cats, I think I can safely say, that they run off of instincts. They are what they are, and we are what we are.

        • Re: (Score:3)

          by drnb ( 2434720 )

          It's a backhanded gift. Your cat thinks you're in incompetent hunter and is trying to help you because he/she feels sorry for you.

          No. My cat is in total awe of my can opener skills. She's just trying to flout her independence. :-)

          • lol... that was my "goto" if my cat was getting into something I didn't like, or blocking me from my door.. I just press on the can opener, and she would be at me feet in a few seconds. LOL. cats are so predictable!

        • I seem to recall reading somewhere they think we're kittens and are trying to teach us - or more likely an automatic behaviour encoded into genes building brains by evolution led to increased survival of kittens and relative increase in prevalence of those genes.

          • possibly? Hard to determine. Maybe that's why humans like feeding animals. But ultimately the mush of evolutionary reasons end up as us simply enjoying feeding animals.

            There's definitely a problem intellectually in anthropomorphising animals, but there is an equal and much more overlooked problem in assuming that animals must necessarily be different.

          • I watched a bear try and open a tailgate to a truck. It was standing on two hind legs, pawing at the release mechanism. It was all scratched up (couldn't figure out how to open it).. What automatic behavior does that fall under? Trucks have only been around a hundred years or so. Maybe we underestimate intelligence of lesser life forms?

      • You didnâ(TM)t make it wear a collar with a bell?

      • I once came home to our shared house (post student years) to find the hallway about six inches deep in feathers and a dead bird - I'm not sure the bird appreciated the gesture.

  • Better check first (Score:4, Funny)

    by PPH ( 736903 ) on Saturday July 05, 2025 @02:19PM (#65499618)

    ... and see if those fish don't have hooks in them.

  • Concerned for our health (Score:5, Funny)

    by OrangeTide ( 124937 ) on Saturday July 05, 2025 @02:20PM (#65499620) Homepage Journal

    They've seen the obesity epidemic in America and are concerned we eat too much red meat and carbs.
    They're like: Try having a fish once in a while, fatso. Any maybe you'll stop dumping garbage in our ocean if you have to eat out of it too.

    • me get off topic? no way, but damn if those new weight loss drugs work. I know someone who gets a shot once a month, and she lost like 40 pounds. It seems to release people from a lot of addictions to bad things. May I recommend to people who want to "Make America Great", that those shots should be offered for free to everybody in America.

  • If we can decode their communication... (Score:5, Funny)

    by 93 Escort Wagon ( 326346 ) on Saturday July 05, 2025 @02:38PM (#65499660)

    Orca 1: What are those things? They keep showing up at inconvenient times.
    Orca 2: Yeah, I was trying to make moves on Orca 3, but one of those wouldn't give us privacy! It's maddening...
    Orca 1: They look pretty dumb. I wonder if they can communicate?
    Orca 2: Hey, let's see if they're as dumb as they look! I've been playing with this bird carcass - I'm gonna give it to them and see what happens.

    ...

    Orca 1: Yup, they're dumb. I saw they kept pushing it back towards you, each time you tried to give it to them. Hmm... perhaps it's some primitive form of play? Orca 4 thinks he saw a couple of them waving those scrawny limbs at each other - I wonder if that serves as some really primitive level of communication?

  • Douglas Adams would cheer this on (Score:5, Insightful)

    by zuki ( 845560 ) on Saturday July 05, 2025 @02:48PM (#65499686) Journal
    "So Long, And Thanks For All The Fish" suddenly makes so much more sense now.
  • They take you to the bottom of the tank for awhile.

  • That they also share with humans may show their interest in relating to us as well.

    If you can't beat them, join them.

  • So long, and thanks for all the fish (Score:4, Funny)

    by RitchCraft ( 6454710 ) on Saturday July 05, 2025 @06:30PM (#65500016)

    They are thanking us for all the fish before they leave this doomed planet.

  • If you don't take the food, you ARE food.

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