On March 19th a group of marine biologists aboard a Naturaliste Charters boat exploring Western Australia’s southern coast saw a group of sperm whales come under attack from a pod of at least thirty orcas. After being chased to the point of exhaustion, the four sperm whales adopted some unusual tactics to fend off their potential predators.
First of all, they huddled tightly together in a circle, with their heads to the centre, fanning their tails and thrashing frantically. All then went quiet until the scientists saw a big cloud of dark red liquid make its way to the surface, which, fearing the worst, they took to be blood. However, instead of tucking into their next meal, the orcas made an about turn and exited stage left.
Instead of the tell-tale signs of a massacre, what the marine biologists had witnessed was the sperm whales emptying their bowels and launching a “poonado” at their foes in an act of what is termed “defensive defection”. As their diet consists mostly of squid, their faeces is a reddish colour and the dark bubble was later confirmed to be a “cloud of diarrhoea”.
The moral of the tale is that if you are going to shit your pants, be sure to make good use of the output.
This post first appeared on Windowthroughtime | A Wry View Of Life For The World-weary, please read the originial post: here
