Ocean your eyes

It can almost certainly tell different species apart based on the shape of those air bladders. And it can tell if a fish has something weird inside it, like a metal hook. In Hawaii, false killer whales often pluck tuna off fishing lines, and “they’ll know where the hook is inside that fish,” Aude Pacini, who studies these animals, tells me. “They can ‘see’ things that you and I would never consider unless we had an X-ray machine or an MRI scanner.”

This penetrating perception is so unusual that scientists have barely begun to consider its implications. The beaked whales, for example, are odontocetes that look dolphin-esque on the outside—but on the inside, their skulls bear a strange assortment of crests, ridges, and bumps, many of which are only found in males.

Pavel Gol’din has suggested that these structures might be the equivalent of deer antlers—showy ornaments that are used to attract mates. Such ornaments would normally protrude from the body in a visible and conspicuous way, but that’s unnecessary for animals that are living medical scanners.’

I'm not sure if I ever shared this story before here, but in Curacao, when I was allowed to assist in a guest interaction programme, there was suddenly consternation in the pool behind us. A guest had entered the water and the dolphins were going crazy, paying no heed to the trainers anymore. The lead trainer that was with me gave the dolphins to me to watch over while she went to help. When she came back she told me what had happened. The guest that had caused so much uproar had left the water again and was asked if he had done anything to upset the dolphins. He hadn't, and he couldn't imagine what was wrong... until he mentioned he had a pacemaker. The younger dolphins in the pool had never seen someone with a pacemaker before and apparently it rocked their world.

Commerson's dolphin Cephalorhynchus commersonii commersonii

Beluga Delphinapterus leucas

African dusky dolphin Aethalodelphis obscurus obscurus

California sea lions (Zalophus californianus) sparring in La Jolla, California, USA

Killer whales (Orcinus orca)

Australian snubfin dolphin Orcaella heinsohni

FIRST-EVER VIDEO EVIDENCE CONFIRMS HEADBUTTING IN SPERM WHALES

Researchers have documented sperm whales headbutting each other using drone footage, confirming a behavior long speculated about from 19th-century whaling accounts. The study recorded three observations in the Azores and Balearic Islands where sub-adult whales collided at speeds up to 3.6 m/s, generating forces of approximately 200 kN. The individuals involved were younger whales, not the massive adult males previously hypothesized to engage in such contests.

These findings challenge previous skepticism that headbutting would risk damaging the whales' complex sound-producing anatomy. The behavior may function as rough play for practicing adult competition or play a role in social dynamics, such as the dispersal of maturing males from their natal groups. The opportunistic drone observations suggest such near-surface behaviors may be more common than previously recognized.

Gif: Headbutting behavior between two juvenile sperm whales. 4x speed. Full video here