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A study in the journal Oceans details the remarkable chance encounter between a group of citizen scientists on a snorkeling expedition in the Kvænangen fjords of Norway and a pair of killer whales (Orcinus orca).

For the first time, wild orcas were observed gently "tongue nibbling," a behavior that previously had only been reported among orcas in captivity, and then only on a handful of occasions. The kissing-like behavior is thought to reinforce social bonds, particularly among juvenile members of the species.

All social animals, including the 90 species of whales, dolphins and porpoises, construct complex and intricate social behaviors. Studying these behaviors, a cornerstone of behavioral ecology, can be extremely challenging, however.

On the one hand, observations of animals in captivity or under human care may differ wildly from behaviors exhibited by freely roaming animals in their natural habitats. On the other hand, detailed observations in the wild can be perilous or, as in this case, dependent on fleetingly brief chance encounters.

This is especially true for aquatic creatures like orcas, which are primarily observed when they are near or at the ocean surface, which severely limits scientists' ability to study the subtleties and complexity of their social interactions.

The video of the chance encounter reported in the paper was captured in 2024, from a distance of about 30 to 50 feet. The interaction, which lasted nearly two minutes, involved multiple instances of apparently gentle, face-to-face contact.

The encounter closely resembles behavior previously documented in zoological settings with orcas from geographically diverse regions in both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. It also resembles the mouth-to-mouth interactions documented among beluga whales under human care.

The ubiquity of this behavior among cetaceans, the authors suggest, supports the interpretation of tongue nibbling as a means of reinforcing social bonds. They also contend that these observations support the argument that orcas, and potentially other cetaceans in human care, may serve as valuable models for investigating naturally occurring social dynamics under controlled, observable conditions.

The authors go on to caution, however, that even though certain behaviors may occur in both natural and human-managed settings, the causes or underlying motivations for those behaviors may differ. This underscores the importance of capturing the often-cryptic social behaviors of cetaceans in their natural habitat. It also illustrates the value of citizen-science observations to zoological research.

Contrary to their popular moniker of "killer whales," orcas are the largest member of the dolphin family and, in the wild, are generally not regarded as dangerous toward humans.

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