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Orcas Playing with Their Food: Wearing Salmon on Their Head · How To Protect The Ocean

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  Orcas wearing salmon hats. Is it a fashion statement or is
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  it a sign of good things to come in the
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  future? We're going to be talking about a recent picture that
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  was taken of an orca in an area where there were plenty of salmon
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  that wore the salmon as a hat. That's
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  on this episode of the How to Protect the Ocean podcast. You're not going
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  to want to miss this. Let's start the show. Hey,
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  everybody, welcome back to another exciting and funny, I think, episode
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  of the How to Protect the Ocean podcast. I'm your host, Andrew Lewin. This
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  is the podcast where you find out what's happening with the ocean, how you can speak up for
• 0:37
  the ocean, and what you can do to live for a better ocean by taking
• 0:41
  action. If you're looking for more ocean news and
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  more things to know about how you can help protect the ocean by knowing more
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  about ocean conservation, go to our website, speakupforblue.com to
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  the Fancy Scientist, We have Beyond Jaws if you want to learn about shark conservation and
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  Let's talk about salmon hats, folks. Is it a fashion statement
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  by Orcas? Is it being brought back like it was in the
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  1980s? Or is it just a sign that, hey, you know what? I'm
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  going to play with my food a little bit by these orcas. And a sign that we
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  need to learn a lot more about these orcas. You're probably knowing
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  where I'm going with this, but we're going to talk about it. Animals
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  are really interesting things. I feel as though sometimes when we learn
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  about animals, we don't see the characters of these animals.
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  We don't see that every whale has its own character.
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  every shark has its own character and even fish if you
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  study them enough and you look at them and you observe them enough you
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  will see individual fish displaying different types
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  of behaviors and different types of characters it's a very interesting field of
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  science but especially with marine mammals where behaviors are
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  observed because these marine mammals these whales these
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  dolphins orcas minke whales humpback whales they're
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  very interesting, they're extremely intelligent, they're emotionally intelligent, and
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  we get to see a lot of different behaviors from them as we
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  observe them, whether we use drone footage, whether we do it through
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  whale watching, whether we do it through underwater camera work, there's
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  a lot of different ways now, especially with technology, that we can actually see
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  these marine mammals just kind of have these types of, display
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  these type of characteristics. Now sometimes it could just be you know, going
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  up against a rock and just scratching itself. Sometimes it's the way they interact with
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  other members of their pod. Sometimes it's the way they interact
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  with people around them and boats and how curious they are. Some
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  are more curious, some are a little shyer. You know, you get to see these
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  different displays. But when it comes to orcas and it comes
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  to feeding, that's where it becomes interesting. They've
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  had a lot of known behaviors that we're gonna talk about in just
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  a sec, but I wanted to kind of talk a little bit about behaviors
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  and characteristics in animals anyway, especially when it comes to
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  animals living in around humans. I had the opportunity, the
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  wonderful pleasure of being the Toronto Zoo podcast host for
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  about two years. And during my time, I was
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  allowed to visit the zoo. I got the behind the scenes couture
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  and I was able to talk to the zookeepers about
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  the animals that they look after each and every day. Amazing people,
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  great scientists, definitely care about the
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  animals at the Toronto Zoo. And I really got to
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  know a lot of the gorilla zookeepers. And
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  that was really interesting because of the different types
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  of characters that they had, not only as zookeepers, but also
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  from the gorillas themselves. Like for instance, unfortunately he just passed,
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  but Charles was the troop leader for the gorillas. Silverback
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  gorilla, massive animal, really cool
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  looking. I got to see him fairly up close, obviously behind
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  the screen, but I got to see him fairly up close. Very intimidating looking. This
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  is an animal that could tear things apart very,
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  very easily. He's that strong, right? These gorillas are so strong. Was
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  afraid of frogs, people. He was afraid of frogs.
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  In fact, there are a number of instances where the gorilla would
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  go out, like the troop would go out, and they would come out from their
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  indoor, I guess, indoor habitat, and
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  they would go to their outdoor habitat, and Charles would stop the
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  rest of the troop from going outside and make them
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  go back in because there was something out there that he didn't
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  like and so they would allow the gorillas to go inside they
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  close everything off and they started looking around to see what
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  did Charles not want everybody else to go in and see they
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  noticed that there was a little tree frog on one of the trees so
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  they removed that tree frog just to see what would happen and
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  now lo and behold they went the gorillas went out they looked
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  around and Charles like yep we're all good we can go out it was the
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  tree frog It was the tree frog. And later on, a couple of years ago,
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  actually it was last year, I went to the zoo with
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  my daughter Taya. She's very big into wildlife, wants to become a wildlife
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  biologist herself. And we went to the zoo and
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  it was really interesting because part of the outdoor exhibit, the gorillas were
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  out, part of the outdoor exhibit had what looked like to
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  be a reinforced part of the fence. And it was just this
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  like square area as a reinforced part, but it looked like a part that they didn't,
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  that the zookeepers didn't want the gorillas to go near. And what
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  was on that little part to make sure that they didn't go near it? There
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  was a picture of a frog. I swear to God, there was a picture of a frog and nobody really noticed
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  it. And I told Taya the story about the frog and she's the one
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  who pointed out, it's like, isn't that a picture of a frog? I'm like, yeah, I bet you they're using it
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  because nobody will go near it. None of the gorillas will go near that
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  area. because there is a frog. One more
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  story about this troop. There was a gorilla named Josephine.
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  Josephine was, unfortunately, she has since passed. They all were
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  older gorillas. They were in their 40s and 50s. They're the ones
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  that passed. But she was notorious for
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  wearing people's hats. she would wear different people's hats
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  so not take the people take the hats off people she was taking notice of
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  what people were wearing and so they give often
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  give like things that are enrichment for the
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  animals whether it be apple tree branches or whether it
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  be food or whether it be something that they can handle she
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  was interested in people's hats and so what they would do is they would give
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  her different types of hats and she would actually put the hats on and she would
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  look at it in the glass so it was like a mirror they gave her a mirror eventually that
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  she could look into and she would put a hat on and she would see what
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  she looked like because she saw all the people who were looking at her to come to
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  visit and she would see the hats and she was curious and she would want to try
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  on the hats. This is what I'm talking about when we talk about marine mammals, or
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  mammals in general in this case, about having different characters. Very
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  interesting characters, very human-like characters when it comes to gorillas, but
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  also when you talk about marine mammals, they have different types of
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  characters. We know some animals are more aggressive, some animals
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  are more passive, some are a little bit more adventurous, while
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  some are a little bit more shy, a little introverted. But regardless, they
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  all have their own character. They all have their own characteristics that
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  we can identify. And so that when scientists and observers
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  and conservationists go up to see and observe these animals, they can pick them
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  out just based on their behavior and some of their markings as well. And
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  I think that's what we're seeing in this case. There
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  was a recent, photo that was taken of an orca
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  that was in one of the inlets in Puget Sound and the
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  animals wearing a Hat that
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  was a salmon. It was a wearing a salmon on its head. So they call it the salmon
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  hat It was part of J pod that was inland Puget Sound continuously
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  for more than a month this fall Feasting on fish. Thanks
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  to the chum salmon run. So that was a pretty big one and But so it
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  was wearing it as a hat. This was a fad back in
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  the 1980s. In 1987, there were several orcas
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  from the southern resident orca population in different pods that
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  were wearing salmon as a hat. And it kind of
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  grew through different pods. And so as some were wearing it,
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  then more of the orcas were wearing it, then more of the orcas, then a different pod,
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  another orca was wearing it, and that kind of grew. they didn't know if
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  this was more of a fashion trend where people are like let's just try it this kind
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  of like a funny thing or whether it was just something that they celebrate
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  whether it was something that it could have just been that there was a lot of food
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  in the case of the recent orca that was photographed there
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  was a chum run a salmon chum run and so maybe it was
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  just celebrating that there were just so many fish that it could play with
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  them. It actually had time. Its belly was full, and it
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  actually had time to eat and had time to play with its food. We
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  know that orcas do this. They wear mola molas, the
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  sunfish, the massive, massive sunfish, as hats. Once
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  they eat them, they wear it on their head. It's something
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  that orcas do. And we don't know if it's just like a playful thing. They're bored
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  or they want to celebrate. We don't know if it's a celebration of their kill.
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  We don't know if it's something that says, hey, there's food out
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  here to other orcas to say, hey, I'm wearing this because there's food out
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  here. We don't exactly know why they do
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  it. They think it's just a behavior that happens very much
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  like animals are bored and they want to do something new.
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  Very much of what's being hypothesized in the Strait
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  of Gibraltar where these orcas are attacking or quote
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  unquote attacking the sailboats. And so a lot of
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  orca researchers are saying, hey, you know what? They're actually probably
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  just trying to learn how to hunt, and they're using the sailboats. There's
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  not a lot in the open ocean, so they're using the sailboats as
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  a way to mimic what a kill would
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  be or what a hunt would be like, and so they're trying that as a strategy. And
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  so they try different things. they're sometimes they get bored,
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  sometimes they're practicing for a hunt, sometimes they're just trying
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  to have some fun and trying to do some weird things like wear salmon
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  as a hat. That is what really is
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  a conclusion. It really comes down to we don't know much about these
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  animals. We know that when their population is up or
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  their population is down because we can take those observations. We
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  know if there's a healthy animal or not a healthy animal. We can do that
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  through observations, through drones, through air sightings,
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  through boat sightings. There's a lot of different ways to
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  be able to tell about that health. Sometimes it's necropsies after
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  they pass away. But there's not a lot that we can tell from a behavior standpoint
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  in these very unique and interesting styles
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  of what they're doing it it's fun it's
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  actually you know fun to to see that these animals are
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  displaying these little signs that they have some
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  attitude you know they have maybe some style that's
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  that's a style for them but they're it just goes to show that they
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  are very interesting animals and they're animals that we
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  need to study more and they are animals that
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  have a unique aspect to them and
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  and we just don't know why and we just don't know what brings it
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  on we just don't know Why they do it. We just don't
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  know what they're for. It's just it's a lot It's a lot of
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  interesting things these orcas and and marine mammals in general
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  And so what I would say in a lot of these things is these behaviors
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  these unique behaviors need to be studied more and
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  that that you know that comes from funding that comes from people connecting
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  with the ocean people going out and whale watching and There are a lot of
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  dedicated photographers and conservationists and people who
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  are part of orca networks that are studying these animals, that are studying these
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  behaviors, not just scientists, but they collaborate with
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  a lot of scientists and it's just a really cool thing
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  to do. There's the Orca Network, there's a lot of different orca researchers
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  at UBC, University of British Columbia, at University of Victoria, University
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  of Washington, Monterey Bay Aquarium does
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  it as well. There are a lot of researchers that collaborate and discuss the
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  southern resident orca population as well as the northern resident and the
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  transient population and to see what these
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  animals are up to and why they're so different and why they do
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  such unique things. It's a fun thing to be able to talk about,
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  not always talking about death and decrease in
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  populations. And I want to share that with you on today's episode
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  because I think it's really important. I think it's important that we
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  talk about these things and be able to discover and
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  have curiosity. One thing I realized when
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  I talk about this on a podcast, on
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  a video, whenever I talk to them, I just talk to my neighbors or I talk to
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  my family members, I talk to my kids. Curiosity is
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  what's really intriguing about science. It's why scientists
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  do what they do. It's why conservationists do what they do. We ask questions. Why
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  aren't orcas wearing salmons as hats? You know, what
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  is the reason for it? How do I figure that out? These are the questions
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  that we need to ask ourselves, and this is why I want to share it with you, because I want you
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  to open up your curiosity. And as I end this episode, I'm
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  going to say, what do you want to know more about in
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  the ocean? What questions do you have about the oceans? Put your
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  questions in the comments below, as well, what you thought about this
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  episode. But I really want to know what you think about the ocean and
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  the questions that you have that you want scientists to answer. Maybe
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  it's already been answered. Maybe it hasn't. But if you have questions, I want you to put them
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  in the comments below. You can put them on Spotify, on
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  the comments in YouTube, or you can DM me at
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  howtoprotecttheocean on Instagram. That's at howtoprotecttheocean. And
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  that's it for today's episode. Until next time, you have been listening
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  to the How to Protect the Ocean podcast. I'm your host, Angelo. And have