Megaptera novaeangliae whales have been pictured amass in so - called “ supergroups ” off the coast of South Africa , and researchers are n’t entirely sure why it ’s happening . As reported inPLOS ONE , collections of 20 to 200 of these whales have been documented at least 22 time over the last three or so years .
Some outlets have hinted that this may be the mark of some secret plan to take over the globe – acetacean coup – but to us , it looks more like a rave . The only interrogative now is whether they were listening to dubstep or some heavy drumfish and bass .
More realistically speaking , though , these supergroups are in all probability tie in to bon vivant needs . The team ’s paper explains that “ feeding behavior was name by lunges , stiff milling and insistent and consecutive diving behavior , link dame and seal eating , defecations , and the pungent “ suspicious ” olfactory sensation of whale coke . ”
The squad of researchers , led by the University of Pretoria , take note that the increasing issue of summer humpback whales in the region may have naturally lead to the coalescing of smaller groups of whales into these large supergroups , where a snack bar of Antarctic krill awaits them .
Normally , these whales dine like they ’re losing their minds during Southern Hemisphere summertime before migrate en masse shot northwards to deliver their baby . In this case , though , the whale supergroups were feeding further north than ever before , perhaps connect to the neat abundance of krill there – which in turn may be linked to the major planet ’s increasingly tender ocean .
Around 100 year ago , ascertain this many kyphosis whales off the slide of South Africa would n’t have been an unusual lot . However , the recitation of whaling trim their numbers by around 90 percent , and sightings of them off this particular coastline became something of a rarity .
They did n’t necessarily clump together in these whale rave formation a century ago , but there ’s a chance that they might have done – perhaps , thanks to the annihilation of their population numbers , we just have n’t seen it for ourselves .
Hey there , humpback . Claude Hout / Shutterstock
Either way , it appears they ’re returning to the shores of South Africa . This fact alone does n’t suggest that their number have find to pre - whaling day , although there is some grounds that their universe is indeed growing once again .
Largely thanks to a 1966 moratorium on whaling in much of the world ’s ocean , the hunchback whaleisn’t an endanger species . According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature , they are heel as “ Least Concern . ”
So now that we sleep together what to look for , wait more of these humpback spout to be documented as time move on . company on , you crazy cetacean mammal – just do n’t partytoohard .
[ H / T : New Scientist ]
