Humpback whales belong to rare group of animals that make and modify tools, study says

Out of the millions of species in the animal kingdom, just a handful are known to make and modify their own tools. These include chimpanzees, orangutans, New Caledonian crows — and, of course, humans.

But now, a new member has joined the uber exclusive club: humpback whales.

The mammoth sea creatures were designated as tool wielders in an Aug. 21 study published by researchers at the University of Hawaii in the Royal Society Open Science.

Researchers had previously known that humpback whales make “bubble-nets” — rings of bubbles released from their blowholes — for hunting krill.

However, the new study found that they don’t just create the bubble-nets, they also masterfully manipulate them in order to dramatically increase their hunting success, according to a university news release.

“This impressive behavior places humpback whales among the rare group of animals that both make and use their own tools for hunting,” Lars Bejder, one of the study authors, said in the release.

The research was conducted off the southeast coast of Alaska between 2019 and 2021.

During this period, researchers spotted dozens of humpback whales engaged in solitary hunting with bubble-nets.

Researchers attached non-invasive tags on the whales and flew drones over them in order to collect data on their movements.

Upon analyzing their findings, the researchers discovered that the bubble-nets — which corral krill into the rings — are far from simple or uniform.

“These whales skillfully blow bubbles in patterns that form nets with internal rings, actively controlling details like the number of rings, the size and depth of the net, and the spacing between bubbles,” Bejder said in the release.

By manipulating the bubble-nets, the whales are able to capture as much as seven times more food in one dive, allowing them to minimize their energy expenditure, researchers said.

The study helps demystify a critical aspect of the survival of humpback whales, which are “notoriously difficult to study,” according to the release.

This story was originally published August 22, 2024 at 11:26 AM with the headline "Humpback whales belong to rare group of animals that make and modify tools, study says."