Scientists have witnessed and documented a killer whale infanticide, with a 32-year-old orca killing an apparently unrelated baby orca for an unbelievable reason.
This is supposedly the first reported case of the aggressive behavior, which the scientists say is "almost unheard of" among killer whales themselves.
Killer Whale Kills Infant Orca
The incident, which was published in the Scientific Reports journal, was recorded by a group of scientists from British Columbia, Canada off the coast of Vancouver Island.
"We knew right away that this was a remarkable event," said Jared Towers, from Fisheries and Oceans Canada and one of the three researchers who witnessed the killer whale infanticide in December 2016.
"We've been looking at killer whales for years on this coast and around the world - I study populations in different parts of the world - and witnessing aggressive behaviour between killer whales is almost unheard of," Towers added.
The group of scientists headed out to the water after they detected unusual sounds coming from the killer whales in the area. When they arrived at the location, they saw a 46-year-old female orca and her 32-year-old adult son swimming behind a 13-year-old mother orca, her baby, and a younger sister who they saw had fresh cuts at her rear that were inflicted by another killer whale. They then spotted three more female relatives of the 13-year-old mother, including the grandmother of the baby.
The two families then clashed, and after the chaos, the researchers saw the 13-year-old mother orca giving chase to the mother-son pair, with the corpse of the baby orca hanging from the 32-year-old orca's mouth. The infant's grandmother slammed into the male orca, sending blood flying through the air. After a few minutes, the mother-son pair swam away, but the infant was then in the jaws of the mother. The larger family was still following them when the scientists decided to end their observations as it was already sunset.
The Reason For The Killer Whale Infanticide
The reason for the first-ever documented killer whale infanticide may as well have come from the plot of a TV drama.
The researchers did not see exactly what happened, but they believe that the 32-year-old orca killed the infant orca by drowning it. The perceived reason for the murder was that the orca killed the baby so that its mother would enter a fertile state and mate with him.
The mother, meanwhile, was helping her son because mother-son relationships between orcas are usually strong. It has been suggested that mother orcas help their adult sons find mates, and this case shows just how far they will go.
