It's something that orcas do, and of course orcas can do whatever they want, because who/what is going to tell them otherwise? I saw the story at the CBC:
In what may seem like a call-back to 1980s whale culture, a resident orca off the coast of Washington state was recently spotted sporting a dead salmon on its head. The phenomenon was first documented in 1987 when whales from three separate pods were seen wearing salmon on their heads, like a human wears a hat.But scientists never understood why, and experts are still scratching their heads as they contemplate the most recent incident, documented in October. The director of the University of British Columbia's Marine Mammal Research Unit, Andrew Trites, said there's no obvious reason for the behaviour.
Photo credit in the watermark, via.
/plays to the MN crowd: Makes more sense than wearing a cheese head!
ReplyDeleteThe world is a wild and wonderful place and personally I don't want an explanation.
ReplyDeleteI just want to enjoy salmon hats, in fact I think I'm going to make me one.
Ha! They are probably making fun of us 😂
ReplyDeleteI think they do it just to piss off the democrats.
ReplyDeleteI've read about this in many different sources but I have yet to see an explanation of how the salmon are kept in place. I haven't seen little straps in any of the photos.
ReplyDeleteHairpins?
DeleteThe most credible suggestion I have heard is that the salmon is a snack for later. There is no proof for this but it strikes me as more reasonable than “hat”.
ReplyDelete-SeattleSipper (another login problem….)
Maybe the Salmon are bait the Orcas are using to "fish"
ReplyDeletexoxoxoBruce
Orcas have brains 5 to 6 times larger than our own are immensely intelligent with cunning, planning and orchestration stategies, highly social and CULTURAL. They do things for FUN. That's not anthropomorphism. it's basic ethology. All mammals experience FUN and as youngsters enjoy novelty They innovate culture and experience fads of behaviour, copying each other. We have discovered from marine parks that just Like dolphins they understand the concept of innovating or doing something different and innovation and experimentation with novel things and behaviours seems part of their nature. Once a cool new behaviour or strategy seems exciting or useful they teach it within their cultures and families. They are also easily bored and so like to play with things in their environment. Once one of them does something interesting and satisfying like break the rudders of sailboats others copy and spread the fad for fun. Playing with dead salmon and balancing one on its head may have amused one orca and when observed by family members they would have copied it for fun too. It's little different to human kids' fad of referring to 6-7 .... It serves no logical purpose other than a shared cultural behaviour to cement social bonds amongst the social group.
ReplyDeleteWell said, anon. I quite agree -
Deletehttps://tywkiwdbi.blogspot.com/2010/03/all-animals-except-man-know-that.html