Marine Mammals, features and articles | Educational Science

Sep 24, 2021

'Grandma' killer whale missing from pod, feared dead

An aging killer whale grandmother in a large, extended orca family in the northeastern Pacific Ocean hasn't been seen in months and is thought to have died. The orca (Orcinus orca), known as L47, was one of the most prolific females in the Southern Resident clan; she gave birth to...

Feb 2, 2022

Killer whales spotted for the first time killing blue whales

Gangs of killer whales have been spotted chasing, biting, suffocating and then devouring the largest creature on the planet: the blue whale. Researchers documented these orcas, also called killer whales (Orcinus orca), taking down blue whales (Balaenoptera musculus) on three separate occasions off the southwestern coast of Australia between 2019...

May 19, 2022

Red Sea dolphins slather their skin in coral mucus, because nature is wonderfully gross

Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins take their skin care seriously — in fact, the marine mammals medicate their skin by rubbing up against certain types of corals and sponges, which produce compounds that may help guard the dolphins' skin against infection. Scientists first saw these dolphins scraping their slippery skin against corals...

May 31, 2022

The weird reason dolphins drink each other’s pee

Dolphins get to know their friends by tasting their pee, a new study finds. By sampling sips of each other's urine, dolphins demonstrated a type of social recognition that begins with an exchange of whistles that are unique to specific individuals — much like human names. Scientists have long known...

Aug 22, 2022

Orcas are attacking boats near Europe. It might be a fad.

Orcas are snapping the rudders off boats off the European coast, and scientists aren't sure why. According to NPR, the spate of odd encounters has spanned from the coasts of Portugal and Spain up to France. No one has been injured or killed, but the orcas have damaged several boats,...

Sep 1, 2022

Serial killer whales have been murdering sharks and eating their livers for 5 years

In the waters off of South Africa, a killer whale killing spree is raging. Since 2017, a pair of male orcas (Orcinus orca) have slaughtered at least eight great white sharks (Carcharodon carcharias) near the Gansbaai coast, tearing the fearsome fish apart and eating their livers in all but one...

Oct 10, 2022

Orcas and humpbacks clash in a violent melee of breaching and biting

Whale watchers near the U.S.-Canada border recently witnessed a brutal mass brawl between more than a dozen aggressive orcas and a pair of defensive humpback whales. The intense confrontation, which lasted for several hours, included breaching, tail-slapping, biting flippers and loud vocalizations that could be heard from above the surface,...

Oct 28, 2022

Orcas: Facts about killer whales

Orcas (Orcinus orca) are often called killer whales, even though they almost never attack humans. In fact, the killer whale name was originally whale killer, as ancient sailors saw them hunting in groups to take down large whales, according to Whale and Dolphin Conservation (WDC). Today, orcas are recognized as...

Oct 28, 2022

Grisly new footage shows orcas attacking a great white shark and eating its liver

For at least five years, a pair of serial killer whales in South Africa has been slaughtering great white sharks and eating their livers. (No fava beans or chianti necessary). Now, researchers have shared the world's first video footage of one such orca-on-shark attack. In June, researchers reported that the...

Feb 8, 2023

Orca males are burnouts who let their moms do all the hunting, surprising study finds

Killer whale mothers are sacrificing their own reproductive prospects to guarantee the future success of their sons. While it's no surprise that mothers make sacrifices for their young, researchers have found that orca (Orcinus orca) mothers are taking the mama's boy notion to the extreme, continuing to care for their...

Mar 3, 2023

Orca appears to adopt (or abduct) a baby pilot whale

Researchers aboard a whale watching boat in Iceland were baffled in 2021 when they saw a female orca swimming alongside a very unusual calf. The tiny animal didn't have a white spot near its eye like orcas (Orcinus orca) do and, as it turned out, wasn't even from the same...

Mar 7, 2023

2 orcas slaughter 19 sharks in a single day in South Africa, eating their livers and leaving them to rot

A pair of killer whales has embarked on yet another killing spree, eating the livers of 19 broadnose sevengill sharks (Notorynchus cepedianus) and leaving their carcasses to wash ashore off the coast of Pearly Beach, a village located along the southernmost tip of South Africa. The baffling carnage caught the...

Apr 19, 2023

Extremely rare albino dolphin spotted in Africa, possibly for the 1st time ever

Newlyweds were treated to an incredibly rare sight on their wedding day when the whale-watching vessel they were aboard encountered an albino dolphin calf — likely the first of its kind seen in Africa. The lucky couple, along with their family and friends, saw the unusually colored cetacean April 4...

Jul 20, 2023

Dolphins terrorize and bite beachgoers in Japan — for the 2nd year in a row

Dolphins attacked four people swimming in the sea off the coast of Japan on Sunday (July 16), leaving one man in his 60s with several broken ribs. This is the second year in a row that dolphins have injured humans at beaches in Fukui prefecture, on the Sea of Japan...

Jul 28, 2023

Watch orca tear open whale shark and feast on its liver in extremely rare footage

A orca tears open a whale shark and eats its liver off the coast of Baja California, Mexico, shocking new footage shows. The rare video reveals the orca swimming upside down beneath the shark and chomping its underside, with blood spewing from the wound. After the orca has finished its...