Orcas making out looks pretty much exactly how you’d imagine. Photo: Almunia et al. // Oceans
It seems like not a day goes by without orcas exhibiting some brand-new form of unexpected, and sometimes bizarre, behavior. Just this week, a study was published that described orcas “sharing” food with researchers, in an attempt to study their reactions. However, that’s just the tip of the iceberg. The brainy cetaceans have also been caught wearing dead salmon as headwear, and attacking boats in the Strait of Gibraltar for reasons that remain unclear. Now, we can add making out to that list.
The behavior, dubbed “tongue-nibbling” and described by scientists as “gentle, face-to-face oral contact” that lasted around two minutes, was captured on camera by citizen scientists during a snorkeling expedition in the Kvænangen Fjords in northern Norway. In a study, published June 11 in the journal Oceans, scientists describe it as the first recorded observation of tongue-nibbling between two wild killer whales.
However, while seeing tongue-nibbling in the wild is new, it’s not the first time orcas have been caught making out. The behavior was first described in a 1978 study, and again observed in 2013 – both times among killer whales under human care.
As far as why the orcas are doing this? Well, it sounds pretty much like it’s for the same reason that humans do. “The observation supports the interpretation of tongue-nibbling as a socially affiliative behavior, likely involved in reinforcing social bonds, particularly among juveniles,” wrote the researchers.
