Jared Towers, executive director of Bay Cetology, a research nonprofit based in Alert Bay, British Columbia, was on a boat in waters at the northeastern end of Vancouver Island, British Columbia, when a transient orca offered a freshly-killed harbor seal pup. “I did not have my phone out when T046C2 came over and dropped the seal,” Towers wrote in an email, “But I had time to get it when she left it there sinking before circling around to pick it up again.” He took a photo, showing the orca’s still-open, toothy mouth after just releasing the seal.
Towers says this demonstrates that killer whales are capable of generalised altruism, or kindness. It also shows that orcas can recognise sentience in others and are curious and bold enough to experiment across species, he says.
This generalised altruism makes sense in social societies where members benefit from cooperation. Killer whales are also some of the few marine predators that occasionally find themselves with excess prey. Sometimes, a pod will kill a larger whale than they can finish, for example. “You can just leave it, you can play with it or you can use it to explore relationships in your environment,” says Towers.
I don’t blame the orcas - have you seen a human? Those things are, like, 1/3 of the size of an orca; they’re clearly malnourished, some good ol’ seal meat will fix’em up real good!
Serious now. I think it’s interesting how they’re interacting cooperatively, with an animal of a different species. And it isn’t like either side domesticated the other (unlike, say, humans vs. dogs and cats); they don’t even live in the same environments, at most you have some humans doing short trips into the sea and that’s it.
I feel like this is a step beyond theory of mind already.