Skip to content
All news
  • All news
  • About whales & dolphins
  • Corporates
  • Create healthy seas
  • End captivity
  • Green Whale
  • Prevent deaths in nets
  • Scottish Dolphin Centre
  • Stop whaling
  • Stranding
  • Whale watching
Southern Resident whales

Ambitious plan to free captive orca Lolita announced

The new owner of the Miami Seaquarium in the US has announced that it is...
Gray whale

UN adopts High Seas Treaty to protect the ocean

At the UN 'High Seas Treaty' negotiations in New York, a historic vote for the...

Hopes raised for whale and dolphin protection after last minute landmark nature agreement

WDC's Ed Goodall (far right) at COP15 with Thérèse Coffey (centre) UK Secretary of State...

WDC orca champion picks up award

Beatrice Whishart MSP picks up her Nature Champion award The Scottish Environment LINK, an organisation...

False killer whales and bottlenose dolphins hang out together say researchers

Researchers in New Zealand studying false killer whales and bottlenose dolphins believe that individuals from the two species form long-term partnerships that might help them fend off predators or find food.

Following years monitoring particular groups of false killer whales and bottlenose dolphins in New Zealand, findings reveal that they are both returning together to the same areas over and over again. It appears that they are doing everything together; feeding, travelling, physically interacting and resting as one group.

One reason for this could be connected to safety – the more individuals there are in a group, the more eyes there are looking out for predators, and if a predator does come, the less chance there is of any one individual being picked off.

More on:
Bottlenose dolphin | False killer whale 

Watch this video of false killer whales filmed off the Azores.