Some scientists believe that killer whales have entered matriarchal society, and the whole population is led by older females, who can be over 80 years old. These elders will teach the baby killer whales social behavior and their survival experience, and strengthen the group identity of the baby killer whales. Therefore, killer whales will form different groups with different cultures and traditions, and their personalities and languages are also different. Some killer whales are the most stable families in the animal kingdom.
In the impression of human beings, killer whales generally do not attack humans. However, since the beginning of July, there have been many incidents of killer whales attacking ships in the Gibraltar Strait: the rudder was bitten and the crew was injured. Just like the recent killer whale attack, a 36-foot yacht (about 65,438+065,438+0 meters) was bound for Britain near La Coruna on the northern coast of Spain, but it was hit by killer whales several times on the way.
This is the killer whale's declaration of war on mankind, and all this is a helpless move for the killer whale family to survive. Humans have touched the bottom line of the killer whale family.
The killer whale family in Gibraltar has only 50 members, which is a very rare family group. The reason for this is related to the geographical location of Gibraltar. The Strait of Gibraltar is located between the southernmost tip of Spain and the northwest of Africa (5 degrees 36 minutes west longitude and 35 degrees 57 minutes north latitude), with a total length of 58 kilometers. The narrowest point is located between Spanish Cape Malloch and Moroccan Cape Cires, and the width is only 14km. Narrow geographical location, although ocean current activities bring rich marine life, still limits the growth of killer whale family.
In addition, the Strait of Gibraltar is located between Spain and Morocco, connecting the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. Nearly 300 cargo ships pass through this water area every day. Despite the noise caused by busy shipping, although the Spanish government passed the speed limit of ships in the Gibraltar Strait in 2007, limiting the speed to 24 km/h, it still affected the survival of whales.
Tarifa is the throat of Gibraltar Strait where the Atlantic Ocean meets the Mediterranean Sea. The strong sea breeze is not only suitable for surfing and sea sports, but also suitable for developing whale viewing industry because of the narrow sea area, which makes it easy to see whales. Humans follow killer whales wherever they swim, and many people take pleasure in preventing them from preying.
In addition, the main food of killer whales is tuna, which is also the favorite food of human beings. Every spring, tuna will arrive in the Mediterranean to spawn, and the Strait of Gibraltar is an important migration route for tuna.
The local fishing industry has been using the ancient fishing technology -Almadraba. Whenever tuna goes to the Atlantic Ocean in July and August, fishermen will throw out these traps and wait for the tuna on the way to enter.
However, smart killer whales have long been familiar with human technology. Since 1999, they have been secretly eating tuna directly in the submarine net, leaving only a fish head for the fishermen, which makes them very angry. They put many hooks in the fishing net to get back at the killer whales. Some people even stun killer whales with electric batons, even throw gasoline burning barrels at them, and they even cut off the killer whales' dorsal fins with fishing lines.
Although killer whales are protected animals, people's revenge will not be found in the vast ocean. In addition, in decades of tug-of-war with killer whales, fishermen have found a good way to hunt tuna, that is, killer whales are the search targets. When they see the dorsal fin of killer whales, they will know that there are tuna below, and fishermen will rob them.
The perennial lack of food makes the death rate of killer whale family cubs very high, which is a very painful thing for killer whales. The members of the killer whale family are very close, and their intimacy is no less than that of human beings. For some killer whales, they will follow their mothers all their lives and will not be separated from each other for decades.
In 20 18, a killer whale on the west coast of the United States found his baby dead. It was very sad and kept him with him. The baby slipped off his head more than once, and it would dive into the water to get it back. This behavior lasted for 65,438+07 days, and the mother killer whale swam 65,438+0,600 kilometers until the baby's body rotted and she had to let it sleep on the bottom of the sea.