She blows….kisses.
Orcas have been known to display an array of anthropomorphic-seeming behaviors, from playing to mourning and even scuttling boats.
Now, killer whales have been observed making out in the wild for the first time — and with some epic tongue action to boot, as seen in an amorous video making waves online.
“This study presents the first recorded observation of tongue-nibbling between two wild killer whales,” wrote the researchers in the study, which was published in the journal “Oceans.”
The subaquatic smooch was reportedly filmed in October 2024 by citizen scientists on a snorkeling expedition in the Kvænangen fjords in northern Norway.
The marine makeout session reportedly lasted for two minutes and involved “repeated episodes of gentle, face-to-face oral contact,” after which the whales swam their separate ways, per the study.
Study co-author Javier Almunia, a marine mammal researcher and director of Loro Parque Fundación, told Live Science that the behavior was “exceptionally rare.”
Prior to this instance, the “tongue-nibbling” had only been observed a handful of times in captivity. First seen in captive orcas in 1978, the killer whale kissing was allegedly observed again at the Loro Parque, a zoo in Tenerife, Spain in 2019.
Trainers at Loro Parque claimed that four of the captive orcas had been observed touching tongues, but had not done so for quite a while.
“Orca caretakers at several facilities are aware of the behavior, but its prevalence is extremely low — it may appear and then not be observed again for several years,” said Almunia.
It’s yet unclear why these seal-eaters French Kiss. However, scientists have speculated that the blackfish could use the behavior to reinforce social bonds, similar to how primates kiss to demonstrate friendship or how belugas lock lips to communicate.
“Tongue-nibbling itself has not been recorded in other species, but comparable mouth-related social interactions have been observed in belugas (e.g., mouth-to-mouth contact),” said Almunia.
“This could suggest that, given cetacean anatomy — particularly the adaptation of limbs to the marine environment — oral contact may serve as a more versatile means of social communication than in terrestrial mammals.”
He added, “This behavior appears to serve affiliative purposes and may play a role in reinforcing social bonds or resolving conflicts, akin to grooming or reconciliation behaviors in other highly social species.”
Other theories include that the behavior could be a form of begging for food, grooming like a cleaner shrimp, or even a manner of play on par with orcas wearing salmon as hats in the Pacific Northwest.
Unfortunately, further research is needed to determine what prompted the orcas to make out.
“We can only speculate on the function and nobody can know for sure without data relating it to known social structures in the wild (in captivity the ‘social structure’ is completely artificial and therefore largely irrelevant for understanding social function in evolutionary terms),” said Luke Rendall, a marine mammal scientist at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland.
The fact that orcas nibbled lickers in their natural habitat suggests that kissing is not an aberrant habit borne of captivity but rather a “natural behavior retained in orcas under human care,” said Almunia.
“This continuity supports the idea that behavioral studies in zoological settings provide important insights into the ethology (science of animal behavior) of wild populations,” he said.
This is not the first time orcas have been observed touching each other in unique and seemingly human ways.
For the first time ever in 2024, orcas in the Pacific Northwest were observed giving each other seaweed massages in what scientists believe is a grooming ritual.