Orcas Have an Underestimated Potential for Intelligence, Scientists Say
09.03.2010 - Water & Oceans, Flora & Fauna, Bi-polar
In exploring the brain of a dead killer whale with an MRI, scientists found enormous potential for intelligence. They found the whales to have the second-largest brains among all ocean mammals, and while not as rich in memory cells as the brains of humans, their brains allow for fine sensing and analyzing of their environment. Scientists are now trying to gain better insight into the species’ ability to learn local dialects, teach one another specific methods of hunting and pass on behaviours.
The killer whale is more widely spread than any other marine mammal and is distributed into three distinct populations:
- Fish-eating orcas (restricted to specific areas)
- Flesh-eaters (wandering along the coasts)
- A third group found in the deep-blue waters
Each of these groups has different diets, languages, hunting techniques and manners of integrating into their environment. Because of these differences, they might as well have been different species, but their DNA tells us otherwise. Instead of a DNA tree featuring different branches, the killer whales’ tree has one main trunk, with the exception of a few genes. Discrimination between the different varieties of killer whales might therefore need to be done on the basis of their brains scientists think.
Although relying on brain-weight-to-body-weight ratios to roughly estimate the animals’ intelligence, the scientists believe the ratio severely underestimates the species’ ability to think. Orcas might be much smarter than their brain-weight-to-body-weight ratios suggest.
The explanation might be found in culture it seems. A cultural species behaves differently than a species where everything is determined genetically. An example of this culture in killer whales would be the teaching of particular hunting techniques as observed by researchers on Antarctic islands. They were able to witness mothers repeatedly pushing their young onto beaches in pursuit of seals and sometimes having to drag their stranded young back into the water.
While impressed by the killer whale’s ability to communicate with whistles and pulsed calls, researchers are amazed by the ability of the whales to learn local, complex languages retained for many generations and their echolocation skills.
