Killer whales, also known as orcas, are incredibly intelligent apex predators. As such, researchers have been observing the ...

Southern resident killer whales have been caught on drone video crafting kelp tools to groom one another—an unprecedented ...

Rubbing against algae to slough off dead skin has been observed in other cetaceans, but never before with what can truly be ...

They observed that whales across all social groups, both sexes and age classes then participated in the grooming behaviors — ...

Using drones, researchers observed southern resident killer whales using bull kelp in a behavior called 'allokelping'.

Orcas were spotted using kelp as a grooming tool on each other, the first known use of tools among cetaceans for something other than hunting prey.

This out-of-context grooming behavior helps distract the animal, lower its arousal levels, and deflect any social conflict or agonistic interactions, explains board-certified veterinary ...