AI may be out to kill us, but killer whales probably aren’t. In the past, I’ve written about Iberian orcas ramming yachts off the coasts of Portugal and Spain. Though it’s loads of fun to speculate, we don’t really know why they do it. It’s tempting to believe they’re exacting some kind of revenge for boats harming whales or even for the damage yachts do to the ecosystems the whales are part of. It makes for great memes, but that’s just us having a little fun putting our feelings on those whales. And as we shall see, that’s a dangerous game, at least for the whales.

While we don’t know what the orcas’ motives are for ramming boats, a new study might just offer some insight into what their motives aren’t. Researchers looked at encounters between boats and orcas over the past eight years. On the whole, the animals weren’t particularly aggressive, and often rolled over and showed their bellies, a gesture thought to be friendly, much like when a cat does that (though there’s the possibility that the cat is trying to lure you into putting your hand in a position where she can grab it with both front and back claws, the better to clamp down on it with her teeth). Some of the orcas even brought chunks of tuna and presented them to the humans, a gesture the researchers say is associated with bonding among orcas. These observations support the views of many whale scientists: When orcas ram boats, they don’t intend to harm anyone. They may just be playing. They might even be trying to make friends.

This fits with what scientists have learned over the years about orcas: They’re extremely intelligent and highly social animals, and the ones who ram boats tend to be young. So they haven’t yet learned that maybe humans aren’t the safest creatures to befriend. Because that’s what this comes down to: Whether the orcas are being friendly or not, if humans feel threatened by them, these critically endangered animals might find themselves in even more trouble.

‘til next time,

Avery