A rare video about the self-defense mechanism of dwarf sperm: 'Squid bombing' when in danger

This is probably the first time we've seen this "trick" at such a close distance.

In Cape Town, South Africa, people have come back to an unprecedented sight: in an attempt to escape a hungry seal, the dwarf sperm whale (Kogia sima) is sprayed with red ink. a whole lot of water. I thought it was a squid trick, but it turned out there was another species that possessed this special kind of 'distracting smoke bomb' .

This' squid ' behavior has been documented by science, ' whale acoustic researcher Karrlina Merkens told ScienceAlert. ' But the observations are rare, and most likely this is the first time this has occurred in shallow water .'

Dwarf whale is a very shy creature.

Dwarf whale is a very shy creature, often hiding deep in the deep sea. They spend very little time swimming near the water surface and almost never dare to approach boats. Therefore, researchers do not have much data on sperm whales about the size of dolphins, only know that they possess 'squid-like tactics' when pursued by enemies.

When dwarf whales are in danger, they will emit more than 11 liters of very dense reddish-brown solution, coming from a small sack inside the fish's intestines. However, the video did not end well: local news sites reported that the sperm whale was seriously injured and very weak when the local animal rescue unit arrived, and they decided to end the fish's life. by the method of death.

Dwarf sperm whale tries to escape the seal, releasing reddish brown ink to distract.

Some people have noticed that the whale lost its way because the shallow water area prevented its ability to locate using sound waves, but Merkens thinks otherwise. She thinks the echoes from the fish are confusing to the dwarf whales, because most likely they have never heard these strange echoes; All his life hiding in the deep sea, being able to interact with the human world on rare occasions and being chased by wild beasts, panic is unavoidable.

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