Even the orche kiss with the language, and apparently they do it even when we don’t look at them. The study just published on Oceans which documents, complete with videoa behavior that had so far observed only in captivity orche, and which apparently is part of their romantic repertoire also in nature. Technically it is called “tongue-nibbling”, “tongue gnawing”, but it looks a lot like a kiss.
Kisses or bites? The video was filmed by a group of tourists dedicated to the Citizen Science: they were on the boat and were making a series of dives in the fjords of Kvænangann, in Norwaywhen they identified the two orche. The improvised scientists remained motionless and “lying” under the hair of the water so as not to disturb the cetaceans, breathing with a mouthpiece, and thanks to a GoPro they have Filmed an interaction of almost two minuteswith three different episodes of “kiss” lasting 10, 26 and 18 seconds respectively.
We call him kiss but in reality he looks more like one series of small bites: one of the two specimens “offers” the language to the other, that it pinches it gently. A behavior that So far it has been observed only in orche -growing orche: The most famous episode took place in 2013 at their parque, a Zoo of Tenerife. The employees of the park in time said they had observed kisses between orche in at least four different individuals.
Social training. Even the orche in captivity, however, rarely kiss with their tongue: for example, after the observations of 2013, those of their parque have no longer redone it. That’s why this video taken in nature is particularly precious, and a confirmation that kiss is not an invention of bored orche grown in an aquarium, but an important part of the behavior of these cetaceans.
Among other things, these cetaceans are not the only ones to kiss: similar behaviors have also been observed in Beluga. In both cases, the hypothesis is that kisses help a reinforce social tiesand it could also be a way to train your motor skills. The fact that it is often observed in young individuals is a further clue in favor of the idea that the kisses, between orche or Beluga that they are, are first of all a way to “train” to sociability.
