Killer whales provide fish for humans, just like cats with mice

Beasts around the world deliberately share their freshly caught prey with humans, everything from fish and seals to stingrays describes researchers as real attempts to communicate in a variety.

A comprehensive study documenting 34 such encounters, which has shown over two decades that these clever marine mammals may be trying to build relationships with us—just like a cat throwing a dead bird at your feet.

The study, published in the Journal of Comparative Psychology, analyzed events in four oceans, with killer whales approaching people providing food on boats, in the water, and even on the coast. In almost every case, whales patiently wait for what humans do to the gift before they retrieve or swim.

Global model indicates intentional behavior

“Orcas often share food with each other, which is a prosocial activity and the way they build relationships with each other,” explains Jared Towers, lead author of Cetology, Gulf, British Columbia. “They also share with people that may also show their interest in us.”

The recorded encounters cover an impressive geographical and time range:

• 34 incidents recorded from 2004 to 2024
• Six different orca populations from California to Norway to New Zealand
• Offers 18 different species, including fish, mammals, birds and invertebrates
• 97% of whales wait for human response before acting

Products are not random waste. Whales present entire prey in half of the cases, indicating that they share valuable meals rather than disposing of leftovers. When humans ignore gifts (88% of the time), orcas usually retrieve their food and leave or share it with other whales nearby.

Unprecedented insights into wildlife behavior

While domesticated animals like cats and dogs sometimes provide food for their human companions, this study marks some detailed documentation of similar behaviors in total wildlife. Researchers established strict standards of inclusion to ensure that whales voluntarily approach humans and put objects directly in front of them.

The most attractive aspect is probably the obvious expectation of reciprocity by whales. In seven cases, Orcas made multiple attempts to serve food after his initial rejection. When the items that humans occasionally accept and return, some whales immediately provide them back again, suggesting a form of back and forth communication.

“Providing humans with objects can simultaneously include the opportunity to practice learning cultural behavior, explore or recreate, so they can learn, manipulate or build relationships with us,” the researchers wrote.

Not just fun young people

Contrary to expectations, this behavior is not limited to curious teenagers. From calves to fully adults, all age groups are involved, with roughly equal gender and age similar to healthy orca populations. This extensive involvement suggests that sharing of food with humans represents learned cultural behavior rather than merely young experiments.

The model also reveals differences in population levels. Only orcas from groups hunting marine mammals and large prey near the surface provide food for humans. Despite extensive human contact in some areas, the population that mainly uses echo allocation does not show such behavior when it uses echo volumes primarily.

This distinction implies potential cognitive differences. Shared populations live in visually rich environments where they collaborate to hunt large, warm-blooded prey – which may be conducive to exploring sexual intelligence and social flexibility.

Evolutionary similarities to human behavior

Researchers have proposed fascinating similarities between Orca and human society. Both species evolved into Apex predators with minimal competition overlapping – Confucius in the marine environment, humans on land. This unique relationship may reduce the cost of interaction while potentially providing benefits through mutual curiosity and learning.

The study also noted that only certain ORCA lineages are engaged in human supply, and some document multiple products. This suggests that such behavior can be culturally transmitted among family groups, similar to other orca traditions such as hunting techniques and communication patterns.

However, researchers warned against romanticizing these encounters. It is well known that captive orcas are used as bait to attract and sometimes harm other animals, and the species’ intelligence can achieve complex manipulation behaviors.

Such encounters may become more common as human activities increasingly overlap with Orca habitat. Although whales’ obvious interest in communication represents interspecies behavior, researchers strongly recommend that these interactions not be encouraged because of the unpredictable risks of both species.

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