Killer whales and dolphins: Stupid humans, come in and chat for five cents?

There are many happy elves living in the vast ocean, such as the cute sea otters that we are familiar with who can hold hands, the pistol shrimps that can emit shock waves, the male seahorses that are responsible for giving birth, and so on.

But today I want to give you something different.

We all know that many animals living on land have their own unique calls and language systems. But in the underwater world, if there are animals that can make clear, loud and recognizable calls like cats and dogs, it would be a big deal.

Most of the time, the ocean is a vast and silent world. But in this silent deep blue, there are still a group of contestants who can "talk", communicate and chat.

The first thing that comes to mind is the cute little dolphins. We all learned about dolphins from textbooks or extracurricular knowledge at a very early age. The deepest impression about dolphins is that they can smile and save people.

(Sorry for putting the wrong picture)

In fact, dolphins are extremely intelligent animals in the ocean. They have complex brain anatomy and highly social behavior. The most amazing thing is that they have mirror self-awareness, which means they can know that the person in the mirror is themselves.

Who is this pretty girl? Oh, it turns out to be me.

Dolphins are social because they can make sounds and have language skills to communicate with other friends. Dolphins can use the nasal air sacs located below their blowholes to make a variety of sounds with a wide frequency range.

The sounds of dolphins can be divided into three main categories: frequency-modulated whistles , pulsed sounds (generally used for communication) and clicks (used for echolocation). Interestingly, there are some special whistles that dolphins use to identify themselves.

In other words, each dolphin has its own "name" , and they can call out their names to find their companions who accidentally swam away. Sometimes, when several dolphins gather together, the names of other dolphins who are not present will appear in the chat content.

Dr. Susanne Shultz, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Manchester in the UK, believes that "they should be talking bad about other dolphins!"

But if they are not too far away, other dolphins will hear their conversation because dolphins have a very wide hearing range. Within a radius of 8km, as long as the dolphins want to hear, the gossip whispered by other dolphins will be widely spread.

When it comes to gossip, we have to bring up killer whales.

Although killer whales are called whales, they actually belong to the dolphin family. And they are the largest members of the dolphin family.

Don’t be fooled by their black and white coloring and cute appearance, but they are truly the “kings of the sea.” Killer whales are good at attacking and have very sharp teeth.

They have a varied diet and will prey on penguins, seals, other species of dolphins and even adult whales.

They are also highly social animals, and have fixed social relationships like humans. Most tribes are matriarchal. Males are responsible for hunting and females take care of the cubs.

Killer whales also love the elders in their group . The old whales in a group will also serve as teachers for the young whales, passing on some life or hunting experience.

Scientists have found that when the old whale is unable to hunt, the younger ones will take turns to take care of the old whale and provide it with food every day. They will also often chat with the old whale when they are bored.

Speaking of chatter, killer whales make different noises than dolphins. They produce three main types of sounds: clicks , whistles , and pulses .

Killer whales are the real chatterboxes in the ocean. When they meet, they chat non-stop and are said to like to swear. Especially when hunting together, if one killer whale deserts and lets the prey go, it will be "greeted" by other killer whales.

In addition, killer whale groups in some areas have their own unique calling methods, which are equivalent to the dialects of different regions of humans. Some talented killer whales can also imitate human voices.

Although killer whales are "social beings" in the ocean, they are very friendly to humans. In Iceland, killer whales also know how to cooperate with local fishermen, using their actions to tell fishermen where there are fish underwater. As a reward, fishermen will also give some fish to killer whales.

So these little elves in the ocean are very smart. If you meet them next time, remember to treat them well, otherwise they will most likely turn around and say bad things about you to their friends behind your back.