Orcas used KLP tools to bond from the groom and BC coast, showing the study

At Price Spa, Kelp facials and body raps can set hundreds of dollars back to a humanly interested human.

But in the Salish Sagar from the coast of British Columbia, the southern resident killer whales are also using sea plants, which scientists suspect what are the objectives.

Researchers who have spent years spent while studying the endangered whale say that high quality drones regularly helped them break the pieces of calep, which is pressed as a tool, pressing them as a tool.

Michael Weiss, President of the Center for Whale Research, located in the state of Washington, is the lead writer A recent study Published in the journal Current biology, which envisages both clean and social objectives.

While the Center has been observing the killer whale for almost half a century, he was able to get a new drone in 2024 – through a research grant – with a zoom lens that allowed them to notice such behavior.

“It is not all surprising that they are capable of doing it; is it surprising that we did not know about it from more than 50 years of study,” he said.

“I think it says that there is a lot to learn from these whales, and other less well -studied population to learn a lot to learn.”

While primates and birds are known to use tools, Weis told CBC News that it is very less common in the maritime environment – partially because they do not have a graceing organs.

He said, “Despite these big minds and these complex behaviors, the reports of using equipment are more rare than you expect, which you see in terrestrial animals,” he said.

“And we have also seen whales and dolphins rubbing on each other to potentially remove the parasite and dead skin.”

But the use of both types of behavior of the southern residents has not been seen once in the other whale, said Vice.

“We have not seen any whale reports to combine the combination of those two things and to increase such social touch.”

Researchers to study how skills are learned

Researchers observed behavior among all social groups, both sexes and southern inhabitants in all age groups.

“We saw 30 different examples of this, which is a limited sample size in terms of statistical power, but in the context of displaying that it is not only a bizarre thing-that it is an important type of social life-that is quite strong-it is quite strong,” Vis said.

Dr., a professor at UBC Institute for the Oceanings and Fisheries. Andrew Trights told CBC News that in reading the study, he sees enough comments among individuals to be important.

“We are looking at the conversation between Killer Whale and Dolphin, but we have never seen the conversation with Kelp anytime, and so it’s something new to me, and I was quite excited,” Tights said.

“Some of these are speculative about what the objective may be, but I think it’s a good starting point that I think is very unique behavior. You are not born with this behavior. You learn it and with conversation with others, it is reinforced.”

Weiss said that other mammals, including primet, use equipment and use groom to each other, but the whale position is different, in part because two animals are getting shared benefits.

He said, “We do not have a whale with a stick. We have two whales with Celp, as well as rub it against each other. And it is really unique,” he said.

He said that primates rarely use grooming tools unless they are given by humans.

He said, “Such widespread, general behavior in population – everyone is doing this among the southern residents, they are doing this all the time – in fact there is no example of anything like that, where it has become common in social interaction to use a tool to increase that conversation,” he said.

“So I think it is really special and it is a new reference to the use of equipment in marine mammals. It’s not something we have seen that marine mammals have used the equipment for the first time.”

Weiss stated that the next steps for researchers are seeing how skills are learned, more understanding about whale’s skin condition and the use of kelp helps to closely look at social bonds.

“Given what whales who do this behavior together, then there is more likely to cooperate in other ways later. Do they be more likely to pursue fish together? Do they have more likely to share food with each other, or do other social interactions?” He said.

Important protection for conservation of ‘unique culture’

Southern resident orkas with West Coast is classified into three families, known as J, K and L Pods, each of which has its own dialect and calls that are different from others. The area known as Big’s killer whale also has transient orkas, which mainly feed the marine mammals.

Fisheries and oceans Canada and Park Canada, Transport Canada and Environment and Climate Change Canada, completion the assessment of the population southern last year, found that the population had declined to 73 with only 23 breeding women.

The Center for Whale Research also said that the population had increased to 73 in the census after the death of two adult men orcas on 1 July 2024.

Weiss said that research is another example of why it is important to protect the population.

“When we are talking about preserving this population, we are not only talking about the conservation of 73 individual animals. We are talking about the protection of unique behavior with a unique culture that if we lose them, we will never see again,” he said.

“This is just another example of the fact that these separate population of whale is not interchangeable, they are not fungi. They are special and losing them is a disadvantage to the world. It is something unique from the world.”