In BBC Earth’s Close Encounters YouTube series, people share their life-changing experiences with nature. One such person is whale scientist Nan Hauser, who had a close call when she believes a humpback whale saved her life.
- “I was almost bulldozed by a humpback whale on New Year’s Day.”
- "I shudder to think how often I’ve courted disaster, unknowingly, like this"
When filming in the South Pacific, whale scientist Nan Hauser was swimming near humpbacks when one of them looked at her and started “charging” towards her.
Despite her attempts to create distance between herself and the whale, it kept trying to tuck her under its pectoral fin – and even lifted her out of the water and put her on its head.
But after spotting what she thought was another whale, Hauser realised it was a tiger shark. And it was swimming straight towards her. This led Hauser to believe the humpback had in fact been trying to protect her from the shark.
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Recounting her tale to BBC Earth, Hauser says “I still to this day can’t believe it happened, and being a scientist, it’s even harder. If someone told me the story, I wouldn’t believe them.”
This isn’t the only time whales have been recorded communicating with humans in some form, as they have been filmed creating bubble rings in front of boats.
Are whales altruistic?
Hauser mentions the marine ecologist Robert Pittman’s work about altruism in humpback whales. In 2016, he was the lead author of a study published in Marine Mammal Science titled Humpback whales interfering when mammal-eating killer whales attack other species: Mobbing behavior and interspecific altruism?
Humpback whales have been documented interfering with attacking orcas, displaying what is called ‘mobbing’ behaviour. Mobbing involves a prey species harassing its predator at close range, making bodily contact and sometimes even killing the predator.
However, these humpbacks were mobbing animals that were attacking a different species, so the team questioned why the whales put themselves at risk – especially since orcas are capable of killing humpbacks.
The team suggested three hypotheses: kin selection, reciprocity and altruism.
Kin selection is a type of natural selection that occurs when an animal ‘sacrifices’ themselves to benefit the genetic fitness of its relatives. An example of this can be seen in groups of zebras, when the adults turn towards an attacking predator to protect the herd’s young, rather than fleeing to protect themselves.
One of the most well-known examples of reciprocity in the animal kingdom is in vampire bats, which risk starvation by regurgitating blood for their roost mates.
‘True’ altruism (as humans understand it) differs from these concepts as it does not rely on natural selection, and there is no guarantee that the other animal will be later ‘rewarded’ with a cooperative behaviour.
Pittman’s team concluded: “If the net effect for mobbing humpbacks was an increase in their individual or inclusive fitness through kin selection or reciprocity, then this behaviour could persist even if it inadvertently benefitted other species sometimes.”
However, they suggest that further research into interspecific altruism is needed – even if this behaviour is unintentional.
