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Orcas Are Wearing Dead Salmon as Hats, And Scientists Are Stumped
Science Alert ^ | December 03, 2024 | David Nield

Posted on 12/04/2024 1:01:19 PM PST by Red Badger

A group of orcas off the west coast of North America has brought back a bizarre fashion trend not seen since the late 1980s: wearing a single dead salmon on their heads as if it were a hat.

Experts are at a loss to explain why orcas would want to wear fish in the first place, let alone why they would want to bring back the practice almost 40 years after it stopped.

The salmon hat craze was first observed in 1987 when a female orca in the Puget Sound area of the northeast Pacific was seen carrying a solitary dead fish on her nose. Within a few weeks the behavior was picked up by members of other pods, suggesting something about it must have appealed.

orca with a fish on its head

An orca spotted in Puget Sound in October 2024 wearing a salmon on its head. (Jim Pasola/Orca Network Whale Sighting Report)

Strangely, it would be a seasonal fashion. By 1988 the behavior was apparently passé, stopping as suddenly as it started.

Recent observations from photographers and researchers have confirmed it's happening again.

It's not clear if the whales are showing off, or storing food to eat later. Orcas have been known to store pieces of spare food under their pectoral fins, so this may be an adapted form of that behavior.

It's possible there's some significance to the hats within the communities the orcas live in. It could simply be as it seems – whimsical absurdity that amuses the animals on some playful level.

Or it could just feel good. Humpback whales have previously been seen wearing hats of seaweed, which some have speculated is because they like the sensation. Considering orcas can live for up to 90 years, it could be that some of the same whales are involved (it's the same part of the ocean, and it's not been seen anywhere else). Maybe it was just time for a salmon hat revival.

"Honestly, your guess is as good as mine," Deborah Giles, the science and research director at the nonprofit Wild Orca, told Colin Barras at New Scientist.

However, while scientists may be stumped for an explanation right now, efforts are underway to find one. Plans are being made to use drones to monitor the behavior, and to try and figure out what the purpose of these hats are.

Orcas are smart animals, capable of communicating in different ways that facilitates cultural exchange across different regions. They also hunt in groups, devising intelligent hunting schemes to capture prey. Taken together, novel behaviors involving food might be expected to appear and spread from time to time.

Further observations just might reveal hidden details to this remarkable trend that make its functionality crystal clear.

"Over time, we may be able to gather enough information to show that, for instance, one carried a fish hat for 30 minutes or so, and then he ate it," Giles told New Scientist.


TOPICS: Food; Outdoors; Pets/Animals; Weird Stuff
KEYWORDS: cryptobiology; orca; salmon; whale; wildlife
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1 posted on 12/04/2024 1:01:19 PM PST by Red Badger
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To: Red Badger

Do these hats say “Make Orcadia Great Again”?


2 posted on 12/04/2024 1:03:40 PM PST by RoosterRedux (Emerson (paraphrased): "If you strike at the king, don't fail." The Democrats failed. )
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To: Red Badger

It was Orcas, not Dolphins! Douglas Adams had it so close...


3 posted on 12/04/2024 1:03:49 PM PST by cuban leaf (2024 is going to be one for the history books, like 1939. And 2025 will be more so, like 1940-1945.)
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To: Red Badger

So long. And thanks for all the fish.


4 posted on 12/04/2024 1:04:16 PM PST by cuban leaf (2024 is going to be one for the history books, like 1939. And 2025 will be more so, like 1940-1945.)
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To: Red Badger

That’s even weirder than a bunny with a pancake on its head.


5 posted on 12/04/2024 1:05:38 PM PST by cuban leaf (2024 is going to be one for the history books, like 1939. And 2025 will be more so, like 1940-1945.)
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To: Red Badger

Snacks for later on.


6 posted on 12/04/2024 1:06:19 PM PST by Robert DeLong
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To: Red Badger
"Orcas Are Wearing Dead Salmon as Hats, And Scientists Are Stumped"

Hood ornaments are back in style.
7 posted on 12/04/2024 1:08:05 PM PST by clearcarbon (Fraudulent elections have consequences.)
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To: cuban leaf

8 posted on 12/04/2024 1:08:25 PM PST by Vaquero (In Don't pick a fight with an old guy. If he is too old to fight, he'llz just kill you. )
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To: clearcarbon

OrcaWIFhat


9 posted on 12/04/2024 1:08:47 PM PST by Michigan Bowhunter
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To: Red Badger
They are trying to get sea lions to come in close so they don't have to chase them.

When humans do it they call it "baiting" and have a tiny little fit.

When Killer Whales do it they call it "cute" and "whimsical" and "endearing".

Bunch of Speciesist.

10 posted on 12/04/2024 1:09:41 PM PST by Harmless Teddy Bear ( Not my circus. Not my monkeys. But I can pick out the clowns at 100 yards.)
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To: Red Badger

All orcas are from the dolphin family 🐬 except, of course, for Orca Winfrey.


11 posted on 12/04/2024 1:10:56 PM PST by Ge0ffrey
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To: Red Badger

> in 1987 when a female orca in the Puget Sound area of the northeast Pacific was seen carrying a solitary dead fish on her nose.

Orca are mammals… so obviously this one is is wearing a fish because she want to feel like a gill.

Try the veal! I’ll be here all week.


12 posted on 12/04/2024 1:12:00 PM PST by No.6
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To: Red Badger

Saving dessert for later but having to keep it safe from sneaky siblings.


13 posted on 12/04/2024 1:13:03 PM PST by Manic_Episode (Harpazo imminent. Each post may be my last. It's been real =)
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To: No.6

Maybe she self-identifies as a salmon?...............


14 posted on 12/04/2024 1:13:42 PM PST by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegals are put up in 5 Star hotels....................)
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To: Red Badger

“Human Females wearing minks for hats, Orcas Baffled”


15 posted on 12/04/2024 1:13:55 PM PST by suasponte137
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To: Vaquero

thank you...


16 posted on 12/04/2024 1:14:32 PM PST by Chode (there is no fall back position, there's no rally point, there is no LZ... we're on our own. #FJB)
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To: cuban leaf

🤣🤣🤣you are now, having brought that up, required to post a picture!


17 posted on 12/04/2024 1:15:20 PM PST by leaning conservative (snow coming, school cancelled, yayyyyyyyyy!!!!!!)
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To: Red Badger

Fish heads, fish heads, roly-poly fish heads.


18 posted on 12/04/2024 1:16:22 PM PST by Fledermaus (The election is over! We won big! So why are so many here nick picking, moaning, and whining? )
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To: Red Badger

It’s because they can’t find lamp shades something must be in the water.


19 posted on 12/04/2024 1:16:33 PM PST by Vaduz
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To: Fledermaus

I hate that song!..................


20 posted on 12/04/2024 1:16:41 PM PST by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegals are put up in 5 Star hotels....................)
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