Sperm Whales Use Defense Defecation To Counter Orca Attacks

In order to save themselves, sperm whales used defense defecation against orcas in Western Australia.

Scientists were able to witness the defense strategy of these marine mammals last March 19 during a tourist excursion in Bremer Canyon. This area is a whale-watching hotspot off the coast between Albany and Hopetoun.

Unique Defense Mechanism

Experts said they had seen a "cloud of diarrhea" permeate the water, and this rarely seen defense mechanism seemed to help the sperm whale pod escape the fatal attack by at least 30 killer orcas. Apparently, an orca pod attempted to hunt the pod of giant sperm whales until the latter unleashed its unique defense mechanism.

Marine biologist Jennah Tucker witnessed the incident and she said that sperm whales had developed an intriguing and effective defense strategy over many years.

Tucker explained that sperm whales defecate and swish their tails around through it to fend off or confuse predators. She added that because sperm whale's diet consists mostly of squid, they actually have this really reddish-colored poop.

Furthermore, Tucker said the sperm whales then tightly huddled in a circular formation, headed to the center and fanned their tails out. She continued to described the sperm whales as very distressed and exhausted

"They were sort of poking their heads out of the water and letting out these huge heaving breaths," she said.

Fortunately, their fecal defense had worked and the orcas were forced to swam off in search of fresher waters.

It was during the midst of this mayhem that researchers saw the big, blobby poop bubble rise to the water's surface. Tucker expressed belief that it is rare for orcas to try to take down sperm whales, with only a few documented cases around the world.

"Sperm whales are considered an apex predator, and historically, it was thought that they were pretty much immune to killer whale attacks," Tucker said.

New Population

Researchers from the University of British Columbia recently said that they have identified a potentially new population of open-ocean orcas, which hunt the biggest predators on the planet, including the sperm whales.

Experts mentioned that the orcas that were observed in nine encounters from 1997 to 2021 could either belong to a subpopulation of transient killer whales or a unique oceanic population.

In the study, they pointed out that the encounter that was witnessed with the sperm whales occurred in 1997 about 130 kilometers off the California coast. Many of the sperm whales in the pod were left with "extensive injuries," while one of these marine mammals was killed, the study said.

The study added that there are three different types of killer whales that live along the coast of California and Oregon: residents, transients, and offshores.

Based on research, the species that the experts had encountered shared physical similarities with both transient and offshore ecotypes, but were not "a perfect fit" with either.

So far, researchers were able to identify the orcas as possibly a new group partially because of bite scars on their bodies from the cookiecutter shark, a species of parasitic sharks that lives in the deep ocean.