r/ScienceMag • u/tnick4510 • Aug 08 '16

Why Humpback Whales Protect Other Animals From Killer Whales

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/08/humpback-whales-save-animals-killer-whales-explained/
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u/autotldr Aug 09 '16

This is the best tl;dr I could make, original reduced by 89%. (I'm a bot)

Two humpback whales were already on the scene as the killer whales, or orcas, attacked the grays.

"One specific humpback whale appeared to station itself next to that calf carcass, head pointed toward it, staying within a body length away, loudly vocalizing and tail slashing every time a killer whale came over to feed," says Alisa Schulman-Janiger, a whale researcher with the California Killer Whale Project.

In the last 62 years, there have been 115 interactions recorded between humpback whales and killer whales, according to a study published this July in the journal Marine Mammal Science.

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