When humpback whales become heroes… #fyp

Did you know humpback whales save animals that aren't even the same species and willingly risk their own lives to help without any benefit? It begins when a humpback whale specifically hears an orca hunting vocalization where they'll swim full speed towards the sound. It doesn't matter if there's five or twenty orcas, they go straight into the chaos for an interesting reason. Not to hunt, but make their way towards a prey and attempt to interfere. First, they'll place their bodies directly in the middle between the prey and the orcas, using themselves as a shield to protect, taking on bites and attacks since their bodies have tons of blood. Or above water, they might slap their tails down to splash and scare them away, or even use their flippers to push and shove them off the prey. But sometimes there's too many orcas to block, so they'll use other tactics instead. Like flipping upside down and letting the prey sit on their stomach out of the water and safety, continuously defending the prey for multiple minutes, and in rare cases hours until the orcas finally give up and swim away. It's theorized they do this because they have cross-species empathy, it's a misinterpreted instinct to defend their calves, dislike orcas, or learn behavior from other humpbacks. But these reasons aren't proven. And to this day, scientists still have no clear answer why the humpback decides to be a hero.