• Posted July 12, 2025

Killer Whales Show a Softer Side, Sharing Food With People

They’re known as "killer whales," but orcas have a surprisingly soft and even generous side.

"Orcas often share food with each other — it’s a prosocial activity and a way that they build relationships with each other. That they also share with humans may show their interest in relating to us as well," said Jared Towers, lead author of a new study reporting on 34 interactions in which wild orcas attempted to offer food to people.

Towers is the executive director of Bay Cetology, a Canada-based organization that studies cetaceans, a group of marine mammals that includes whales, dolphins and porpoises.

Working with researchers in New Zealand and Mexico, his team analyzed interactions that they and others had experienced with orcas. Their findings were recently published in the Journal of Comparative Psychology.

To be part of the study, the encounters had to meet strict criteria. The whales had to have made the first move, then dropped their offering of prey in front of people.

In 33 cases, the whales waited to see what happened next. When the food offering was turned down at first, seven times they tried again.

The incidents, which happened over two decades, took place in oceans around the world, from California to New Zealand to Norway and Patagonia.

On 11 of the occasions studied, people were in the water when the orcas approached. In 21 cases, they were on boats and in two cases, they were on shore, researchers said in an American Psychological Association (APA) news release.

Some of the encounters were recorded in videos and photos, and others were described to the researchers.

Domesticated animals like cats and dogs sometimes offer food to humans (for example, a proud feline leaving a mouse or bird on the owner’s doorstep). This new study is among the first to detail such behavior in non-domesticated animals.

Researchers said it stands to reason. Orcas are smart and social animals that share food to build relationships with relatives and other individuals. Because they also tend to hunt prey that’s larger than themselves, they're also apt to have leftovers.

"Offering items to humans could simultaneously include opportunities for killer whales to practice learned cultural behavior, explore or play and in doing so learn about, manipulate or develop relationships with us," the researchers wrote. 

"Giving the advanced cognitive abilities and social, cooperative nature of this species, we assume that any or all of these explanations for, and outcomes of such behavior are possible," they added.

More information

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has more about orcas and other whales.

SOURCE: American Psychological Association, news release, June 30, 2025