Orcs use Varech to create massage rolls

ONe Day last June, scientists from the Center for Whale Research launched a drone camera above a group of orcs swimming off the coast of Washington. They captured 20 minutes of sequences with a whale known as Shachi interacting with his young grandson, Nova. The whales were slowly rolled against the sides of the other and braided their body together in what seemed to be a particularly living example of the social and tactile nature of orcas.

But back on Earth, examining the images on a larger screen, the researchers noticed something unexpected: the whales seemed to maintain a bull of Bull bodies between their bulls two feet long, a type of large algae which frightened the islands and the rocky ribs in the domestic chain of the whales.

The pair arched in exaggerated shapes, skillfully rolling the vegetable matter along their body. When the Varech fell in its place, the younger whale swam back and recovered it in its mouth, then the balance on its muzzle and pushed it again against the body of its grandmother. The researchers finally realized that the whales had to use Varech stems as a kind of tool for massage. While most animals handle tools with the mouth or appendages, these whales used their trunks, requiring precise impressive coordination of the body.

“This underlines how important touch is” in cetaceans.

In an article published today in the journal Current biologyThe researchers nicknamed this “Allokelping” behavior. Observations are added to the growing understanding of scientists of the use of tools in non -human animals and serve as a rare example of the use of tools among whales and other cetaceans. It also represents what is probably the first time that marine mammals have been identified building Tools: whales are not content to grasp existing pieces of Varech, but rather use their teeth to pick up stems pushing in a bed of Varech or tangled in a floating carpet, using the drag of the rod and a movement of head jerk to break a segment that is suitable for this act of mutual friction.

Until now, Allokelping seems to be unique to the resident population in the south of Orcas, the Critical Danger Danger of Orcs extinction to which Shachi and Nova belong. But Michael Weiss, the research director of the Center for Whale Research, came to believe that it is an integral part of their way of being: “It is in fact one of their main social behaviors,” he said.

The next time the researchers launched the drone, they saw other residents of the South do something similar. As the 2024 field season took place, they have accumulated more and more examples of behavior. And they realized that there was evidence of this one in the very first flight that the team had made in April with their new drone: its powerful lens Zoom revealed the details of the life of Orca in details more beautiful and finer than ever.

“This underlines how important touch is” in cetaceans, explains Ana Eguiguren, a graduate student at Dalhousie University in Canada, “that we could not study a lot, Just because of his difficulty, until we can see them with drones. Eguiguren, who was not involved in the recent study, studied the social touch in sperm.

To get an idea of ​​the question of whether the behavior is new or long -standing, Weiss and his team have combed through videos of drones from previous years, zooming for the close -ups and examining the images of lower quality by image for the evidence of allokelping. “This is something that you absolutely have to look for in these other videos,” says Weiss. “But they have been doing it since at least 2019, and probably much longer than that.” The researchers also saw the Alloker whales this year, so it seems that behavior was not only a temporary fashion.

In the new article, researchers analyze 30 Allokeping episodes observed from April to July 2024. Videos include whales of all ages, men and women, and members of the three pods – J, K and L – which make up the resident of the South. J Pod’s videos, which researchers have met most often during this period, and which includes Schachi and Nova, presents 19 of the 25 people and members of the six families.

Michael Haslam, an independent researcher who studied the use of tools through the animal kingdom and was not involved in the work, known as “the time they were able to obtain, the observation hours of three different pods”, is “impressive”.

Observations for using tools in cetaceans are rare. The dolphins of the bottles in Western Australia use sponges to protect their muzzle as they feed along the sandy bottom, and the bump dolphins can use sponges in coupling displays. Some researchers consider the waves that the antarctic orcas generate with their bodies to wash seals and other ice prey and the bubbles they blow to confuse prey in water to constitute tools. But cetaceans have never been observed previously actively creating tools by modifying an existing object.

“It was a very large piece of the puzzle for us, where we realized that there was a kind of intentional mode in progress,” explains Rachel John, a graduate student at the University of Exeter in the United Kingdom who was the first to spot Varech in the video of Shachi and Nova. “They didn’t only find these perfect floating varech durations.”

“Allokelping” is a portmanteau that nods at the Kelping – an activity in which cetaceans, including the resident orcas of the South, roll in Varech beds, lift the Varech with their damage and drapes through their bodies – and Allogroming – The trend of many species through the kingdom of animals to bathe and prepare, which contributes hygiene and social connection.

The researchers hypothesize that Allokelping fulfills these two functions for residents of the South, who would both be new ends for the use of tools in cetaceans. Allokelping seems to be the most common between members of the same matrilinear family or between whales of a similar age, reinforcing the idea that it contributes to social ties. Once, the researchers looked at two young whales, Tofino and Phoenix, Allokelping after a failed hunt. “They were pursuing a fish. “It almost seemed that, like a consolation, they caught Varech and removed it and started Alloker together.”

Proof of the team that Allokelping contributes to hygiene is more temporary. Whales with larger moulting skin areas are more likely to engage in behavior, but more data is necessary to confirm this diagram, and it is not clear if the allowance simply feels good, like scratching itching, or really contributes to skin health.

Researchers aim to find out more about the circumstances that motivate orcas to engage in attribution and on the way young orcas learn to do so. The two youngest resident calves in the South – were born in December 2024 and April 2025 – have not yet been seen Alloker, but babies seem very interested in Varech, says Weiss.

If the mother or brother or sister of a calf in the door, he says: “They will simply swim until their mouths and look, turn to the side and look at this piece of Varech and swim with them.”

Image of lead: Sara Hysong-Shimazu / Shutterstock

• Sarah Deweerdt

  Published on June 23, 2025

  Sarah Deweerdt is an independent writer in Seattle covering biology, medicine and the environment.