Maybe you call up the Revelation of Saint John the Divine would come from a nuclear state of war or climate modification or revolting sentient automaton or something . But after say about a strange new humpback giant behavior , you might need to add a cetacean coup to your list . Happy Friday .
investigator observed 22 instances of humpback whales gain in never - before - go through groups of 20 to 200 heavyweight , on three separate trips off the southwestern coast of South Africa . The field of study ’s authors write that such large aggregations have n’t been enter on prior research trips except for one sighting of 20 whales , which was more likely a number of smaller groups . Changes in the whales ’ quarry , or a turn population , might be leading to the fresh behavior . Or maybe the whales are plotting to take down humanity .
“ It ’s quite strange to see them in such big groups , ” Gísli Vikingsson , head of whale research at the Marine and Freshwater Research Institute in Iceland told New Scientist .
The researchers took to the sea to observe the whale ’s feeding and migrant behaviour . humpback normally feed on krill in the Southern Ocean surrounding Antarctica in the summers , then travel northward to more tropical amnionic fluid to parentage and levy their vernal . On trips in the spill of 2011 , 2014 and 2015 , the scientists follow new so - call superintendent - groups of whales feeding much further northerly than they ’d expect — near South Africa , rather than near Antarctica . They issue their resultslast weekin the journal PLoS One .
There are plenty of theories surrounding the emergence of these group . The investigator suggest there may be changes in the accessibility of prey , or maybe there are simply more giant . After all , as New Scientist reports , whalers decimate humpback populations a one C ago , so possibly this is a rude behavior that ’s add up back as the giant ’ numbers growth .
But this is science . Until one of these hypotheses is turn up with grounds , Gizmodo ’s hypothesis is probably equally likely : The whales have a plot to take down humanity , to reclaim the waters for themselves and eventually , to transmigrate onto the land and into the beautiful cities and farm we ’ve built .
It makes sense . Whales have declamatory , complex brains . We regale our imprisoned whaleslike shit . And maybe they started to realize that the ocean’sfalling oxygen levelsare , in fact , the fault of those same two legged mammals who harpooned their grandparents . What do you retrieve that whale was doingswimming upNew York ’s Hudson River a few months ago ? Probably spying on behalf of the whale armies plotting the imminent whalepocalypse .
take heed , I ’m not saying our hypothesis is any better than those of the whale researchers who spend their living trying to sympathize the behavior of these animals . I am aver we well watch out until someone can offer us classic grounds that the whales are n’t trying to take over .
[ PLoS OneviaNew Scientist ]
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