Some creatures live in such isolated and inaccessible parts of the world that it is almost impossible to study them in their natural habitat. It was stated that 24 species have been identified so far, including beaked whales. These mammals live in the deep waters of the ocean, away from the coast, diving to depths of more than 500 meters in search of food.

The record holder for the deepest dive is the Cuvier’s beaked whale, which was found to have dived to at least 2,992 meters in 2014. The beaked whale also holds the record for longest diving mammal; 222 minutes.

Now the world has a surprising new look into the world of the distant beaked platypus, thanks to a scientific study of Byrd’s platypus population. The population was unexpectedly found closer to shore and in shallower waters than previously observed.

The research was conducted by whale biologists Olga Filatova and Ivan Fedutin from the University of Southern Denmark/Fjord&Bælt and published in the journal. Animal Behavior. Filatova and Fedutin have been studying whales in the North Pacific Ocean for many years, and during an expedition to the Commander Islands in 2008, they first spotted a group of Byrd’s beaked whales off the coast.

“We were there to look for killer whales and humpback whales, so we realized we’d seen a group of Baird’s beaked whales and didn’t do much about it. But we saw them in subsequent years as well, and five years later we suspected there was a stable community frequenting the same area.” “We saw them every year until 2020, when Covid-19 prevented us from returning to the Command Islands,” explains Olga Filatova, whale expert and postdoctoral researcher at the Biology and Climate Group SDU of the University of Southern Denmark.

Coastal habitats and behavior of whales

The studied population of Baird’s beaked whales approached the coast (four kilometers from land) and was observed in shallow waters; Less than 300 meters.

“This is uncharacteristic of this species,” says Olga Filatova, further noting that the population has probably adapted to this particular habitat and therefore deviates from the established notion that all beaked whales roam offshore and in deep waters.

“This means that you cannot expect all individuals of a species to behave in the same way. This makes it difficult to plan for species conservation; for example, in this case, you cannot plan based on the assumption that beaked whales only live in the deep sea. We have shown that they can also live in shallow and coastal waters. There are other habitats that we do not yet know about.” It could also happen,” says Olga Filatova.

There are many examples where individuals of the same whale species behave differently. In the world of whales, it is common to come across groups of the same species that live in different places, eat different prey, communicate differently, and do not like to mix with other species.

Some groups of orcas hunt only marine mammals such as seals and porpoises, while others hunt only herring. Some humpback whales migrate between the tropics and the Arctic, while others are residents of specific regions. Some groups of sperm whales develop their own dialect for internal communication and do not like to communicate with others outside the group.

According to Olga Filatova, social learning works, for example, when groups form preferences for habitat and prey.

There are many forms of social learning in the animal kingdom. Imitation is the most difficult form; the animal sees what others are doing and understands the motivation and logic behind it. Then, “local development” occurs when an animal sees another animal moving toward a particular location, follows it, and learns that that location is valuable. This has been observed in many animals, including fish.

Cultural traditions of beaked whales

Olha Filatova believes that the Baird’s beaked whale population in the Command Islands learns through “local evolution”: they see some of their peers going to shallow waters near the shore, they follow and find that it’s a good place, probably because there are lots of fish.

“This is becoming a cultural tradition, and this is the first time a cultural tradition has been observed among beaked whales,” he says.

Other examples of cultural traditions of cetaceans include the development of special hunting traditions: some slap their tails to stun fish, some create waves to wash seals off ice floes, and some chase fish on shore.

In 2008-2019, researchers observed a total of 186 individuals of Baird’s beaked whales in the Commander Islands. The 107 whales were considered transient whales because they were observed only once. 79 individuals were observed for more than one year and were therefore considered residents.

61 transient whales were seen interacting with residents, and seven of them were seen in shallow water.

“Migrants are not as familiar with local conditions as locals are, and so they often forage at depths typical of their species. But we actually observed some passages in shallow water. These were individuals who had some sort of social contact with local residents. It seems that during this contact they learned about shallow water and its advantages,” he says. Olga Filatova.