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Amazing Animals

Why Do Humpback Whales Save Other Species From Being Hunted?

Scientists now think humpback whales might be the secret hero of the ocean....

Stories about whales saving humans and other animals have been around for years.

We’ve all heard the stories about people in shark attacks that were protected for hours on end by passing sea mammals, and we probably passed them off as urban myths. Now it seems that they might be true after all…

The National Geographic have reported that researchers observed a bizarre occurrence, when watching a pod of killer whales attacking a gray whale and its calf in Monterey Bay, California, killing the calf.

Amazingly, two humpback whales appeared as the orcas continued to  attacked to assist the mother whale. After the calf had been killed, 14 more humpbacks appeared and prevented the orcas from eating the calf for a whole six hours, ignoring their own hunt and feeding schedules to do so.

The phenomena has mystified experts.

Whale breaching

The most amazing thing about this behaviour however, is that some scientists now believe that the whales might be protecting other species for no other reason than to be nice.

“Humpbacks are capable of sophisticated thinking, decision-making, problem-solving, and communication” says Lori Marino, the executive director of the Kimmela Center for Animal Advocacy.

“So, taken altogether, these attributes are those of a species with a highly developed degree of general intelligence capable of empathic responses.”

If Whales are actually capable of being the heroes of the ocean, for no reason other than protecting those smaller than them, that will change how we think about them forever!

Maybe whales are more intelligent then we’ve ever suspected. It proves that we still have so much to learn about the ocean and the animal kingdom….

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