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 Posted: Sun Feb 12, 2012 7:36 am
Humpback whales migrate to Hawaiian waters each winter to nurse and mate, but they sometimes interact with other species and the accompanying video features the first recorded examples of the gregarious cetaceans lifting bottlenose dolphins out of the water with their heads in what seems a game for both animals (the first images showing this phenomenon appear 30 seconds into the production).
Photographs of these peculiar events -- one occurred near Kauai, the other near Maui -- are featured in the video, which was posted recently to the American Museum of Natural History website as part of its Science Bulletins program.
"The two species seemed to cooperate in the activity, and neither displayed signs of aggression or distress," the website describes. "Whales and dolphins in Hawaiian waters often interact, but playful social activity such as this is extremely rare between species."
During the Kauai episode, a bottlenose dolphin was lifted gently out of the water by a humpback whale, and slid tail-first down the whale's head and back into the water.
During the Maui encounter, scientists watched and photographed a humpback whale and bottlenose dolphin performing the same routine six times, with the dolphin sliding gently off the whale head after each "ride."
It may not be everyone's idea of fun, but it sure is cute.
(If two different species can get together so well, why not humans? We need to find a way to not fight so much.... and play more often.)
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Posted: Sun Feb 12, 2012 7:41 am
That having been said here is a news story that warmed my heart.
An orca that had become entangled in a crayfish pot off a New Zealand beach cried for the help of nearby orcas, but is alive thanks to a local diver who plunged in with a knife and cut the mammal loose. Part of the event was videotaped, and the orca's cries can be heard in the footage.
The rescue, just a few hundred yards off Hahei Beach, was performed by Rhys Cochrane of a Cathredal Cove dive outfit. The rope attached to the crayfish pot had become twisted around the orca's tail..
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Posted: Sun Feb 12, 2012 7:12 pm
Do you have a link to the video? It sounds interesting.
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Posted: Sun Feb 12, 2012 8:49 pm
Aeon-WOLFKING Do you have a link to the video? It sounds interesting. It was up on Yahoo this morning, but it was just pictures not a video. Just the same, pretty cool.
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