December 5, 2024
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For the Orks, Dead Salmon Hats are back in fashion after 37 years
Orcas off the coast of Washington state are balancing dead fish on their heads like they did in the 1980s, but researchers still don’t know why.
killer whale (Orcinus orca) or orca, San Juan Islands. Washington State, USA.
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Orcas in the Pacific Northwest have started wearing salmon caps again, reviving a curious trend first described in the 1980s, researchers say.
Last month, scientists and whale watchers spotted it orcas (Orcinus orca) in South Puget Sound and Point No Point in Washington state dead fish swimming in the head.
It’s the first time since the summer of 1987, when a female orca on the West Coast started acting out for no reason. After a couple of weeks, the rest of the pod jumped on the bandwagon and made salmon carcasses a must-have fashion accessory, he says. marine conservation charity ORCA — but it’s not clear if the same thing will happen this time.
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Researchers believe that orcas now wearing salmon hats may be veterans of a trend that started nearly 40 years ago. “It seems possible that some people who experienced (the behavior) for the first time may start again.” Andrew FooteAn evolutionary ecologist at the University of Oslo in Norway said The New Scientist.
The motivation behind the salmon hat trend remains a mystery. “Actually, your guess is as good as mine.” Deborah GilesThe orca researcher at the University of Washington, who also heads the science and research teams at the nonprofit organization Wild Orca, told New Scientist.
Salmon hats are a perfect example of what researchers call a “fad”: a behavior started by one or two people and picked up temporarily by others before being abandoned. In the 1980s, the trend lasted only a year; By the summer of 1988, the dead fish were completely obsolete and the salmon caps disappeared from the West Coast killer whale population.
Orca researchers’ best guess is that salmon cap fads are linked to high food availability. South Puget Sound is now teeming with salmon (Oncorhynchus keta), and because there is too much food to eat on the spot, orcas may be storing the fish for later by balancing it on their heads, New Scientist reports.
Orcas have been seen storing food in other places as well. “We’ve seen killer whales that eat mammals carry large chunks of food under their pectoral fins, kind of tucked in next to their bodies,” Giles said. The salmon is probably too small to fit well under the orca’s pectoral fin, so the marine mammals may have opted for the top of their head.
Camera-equipped drones can help researchers monitor salmon cap orcas in a way that wasn’t possible 37 years ago. “Over time, you might gather enough information to show that, say, one carried the fish for 30 minutes or so, and then ate it,” Giles said.
But the food availability theory could be wrong: If the footage reveals that the orcas abandon the salmon without eating them, the researchers will be sent back to the drawing board.
Whatever the reason for the behavior, Giles said it was fun to see him return in style. “It’s been a while since I’ve seen him in person,” he said.
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