An enormous avocado may have spared some sperm whales from being killed by a pod of orcas off Western Australia’s southern coast. The highly scatological animal encounter was the first time sperm whales had been spotted in the area this year, and they put on an unexpected exhibition.
Marine biologist Jennah Tucker witnessed the deadly episode while on a Naturaliste Charters cruise with other whale watchers and photographers. They were watching a pod of orcas when the group began pushing forward in a manner that indicated they were pursuing something.
The hunt focused on a pod of sperm whales. One of the four was noticeably smaller than the rest, and the group appeared weary and distressed as they gathered together. Sperm whales were often assumed to be immune to orca predation since they are predators in and of themselves. However, orcas have been observed attacking sperm whales, appearing to prefer females with young calves.
The researchers watched as the sperm whales thrashed their tails in response to the orcas’ advances. “A large dark bubble rose to the surface amongst the huddle, believed at the time to have been blood,” Tucker recounted in a blog post shared with IFLScience.
Based on the images and videos taken during the extraordinary encounter, the cloud was eventually identified as whale feces. Sperm whales are known for their explosive defense mechanisms.
“Sperm whales are known to defecate when threatened, referred to as emergency or defensive defection,” Tucker went on to say. “The cloud of diarrhea produced when the whale swings its tail over its excrement acts to repel predators and, in this case, appears to work! It’s no surprise that their feces appear scarlet due to their 90% squid diet.”
Pursuing the ocean’s largest-toothed predator into the shallows is a difficult task, and the orcas fought valiantly. Whatever dirty measures they’re willing to try don’t appear to entail getting a face full of poo.
The orcas involved in the fight were spotted carrying some kind of mysterious meat in their jaws, but it’s unclear whether their search was successful. They may have stolen bits of gigantic squid from sperm whales, which has previously been observed among these species.
What happened during the sperm whales’ fatal first return? The only thing we know for sure went down is a shit-ton of whale poop.
