Orcas wore dead salmon as hats
It was actually a trend.
We have our trends, from fashion to social media trends. Sometimes it’s questionable and weird, other times it’s funny as fuck. But trends aren’t just limited to us humans. Even animals have their own trends, including orcas or killer whales.
One of which was their weird as fuck trend wearing dead salmon as their hats.
The salmon hats were first seen in 1987, where a single female orca was swimming with a dead salmon on her nose. The trend rapidly spread across the pod over 6 weeks. Then suddenly it stopped, as if it never existed. It’s not known why the dead fish hat became a trend, or why it had stopped when it had just started. But it wasn’t the only fad observed amongst orcas.
More recently, orcas have been attacking a number of boats in Europe. They’ve been repeatedly ramming boats while aiming for the rudder, causing the boats to crack and even break. A few unlucky ships had to be towed to the harbour and some have even sunk.
Off the west coast of the USA, juvenile orcas have even been observed playing with fishing equipment. The orcas have been wrapping themselves up in the fishing lines and picking up prawn traps or crab pots with their mouth and moving them to different locations. What’s interesting, is that orcas don’t eat crabs or prawn. So, this is all a game to them.
While that’s pretty cute, they do have some morbid trends. One of which includes playing with porpoises to death. And no, they don’t even eat the porpoise. They just harass it until the porpoise dies, and then continue to toss the corpse around until they get bored of it.
While it’s not known why the orcas have these weird trends, it provides a fascinating insight into their world.
Orcas are renowned for their intelligence and intricate social structures, which are among the most complex in the animal kingdom. These marine mammals exhibit behaviours and social organisation that are remarkably sophisticated, rivalling those of higher primate species.
Each orca pod even has its own unique set of vocalisations or dialects, which are learned, not genetically coded. These distinct sounds aid orcas in identifying members of their own pod.
Their cultural differences also extend to their hunting techniques, many of which are learned behaviours passed through generations. These strategies vary based on their prey and location. For instance, some orcas in the Antarctic have been observed using wave-washing behaviour, where they create waves to knock seals off ice floes. While other orcas found in Argentina, will intentionally beach themselves to snatch sea lion pups off the shore.
So, there’s one thing we can gain from this, which is that orcas are crazy smart. Their trends underscore the remarkable intelligence of these marine mammals. While some of their cultural behaviours are passed down for generations, some just fade away. If I’m truthfully honest, I wouldn’t mind seeing the hats making a comeback, albeit in a less morbid way.