C76 (1/2)
”Oh my god, it's so big!”
Amongst these people, Commander Lei was from the Northwest. Normally, he rarely went out to sea, and never saw any large fish in the sea, let alone a whale of this size.
However, even though they lived by the sea, the experienced Wei Wuji and Xu Er, as well as the sailors who had been sailing for years, had never seen a whale as big as this. This whale's carcass looked to be nearly thirty meters long. Floating on the surface of the water, it looked like a mountain of flesh. There were obvious scars of various sizes on its body. It was a shocking sight to behold.
Commander Lei was so shocked that he forgot the cigarette he was holding in his mouth. The cigarette ash had all over his body. He wiped it off and then turned to Yao Yun, ”Third brother, how did this whale die? The corpse hadn't been taken away. That definitely wasn't the work of an ocean-going whaler, but what ball-egg thing could kill such a large whale? Could it be that White Demon? ”
Ashley took a telescope and carefully observed it for a while before she said, ”Oh my god, this is really a rare occurrence. This is a blue whale! The largest mammal on earth! There will be no natural enemies at all. ”
However, Wei Wuji retorted: ”It's true that blue whales are very difficult to kill by other animals, but it's not an impossible feat. To be able to kill such a large blue whale, you can only kill a large group of them. If they were large enough and cooperative enough, they could hunt an adult blue whale. Look at the wounds on the corpses. They are all pieces of whale fat that were torn off, and they seem to be under the siege of the halberd whales. ”
Ashley has been working on animal protection, but she doesn't know much about marine life, so she asked Yao: ”Isn't it eating fish? There were prey like penguins and seals, and they hunted other whales? Furthermore, this blue whale is too big, and those anti-whales and halberds are much smaller than it. ”
Wei Wuji seemed to know a lot about whales, so he explained: ”The orcas are a very unique species of social whale. Their classification is also very complicated. In a certain sense, every group of orcas is unique, and their eating habits are also very different. Some like to eat fish, some like to hunt seal sea lions and penguins, some like to hunt other whales or dolphins. The difference in size was not difficult as long as there were enough halberd whales. They would take turns to attack. First, they would harass the halberd whales, and when the opponent's strength was depleted, their defenses and defenses would lessen. The halberd whales would then launch probing attacks and tear off pieces of blubber from the blue whale's body time and time again. Some halberd whales also use the body of the blue whale to lower their strength, using their bodies to drive the blue whale above them to suppress it, so that it cannot float and exchange air. Others will be below to block the blue whale's escape route. This kind of chase would last for a long time, and might last for a few days. Most of the time, the final result would be a success, unless they encountered a lack of orcish whale herds, which resulted in them being unable to trap the blue whale or encountering other whales' interference. ”
”Interference from other whales?” Was he a companion of the blue whale? ”I heard that the IQ of whales is also very high. They should be able to stop their companions from being killed, right?” The more Ashley listened, the more he found it interesting.
Wuji looked at the blue whale's corpse and told her, ”Sometimes, the halberd whales are almost invincible in the sea, even if they meet a few mature blue whales, they would still dare to launch an attack to kill the baby whales. At this time, the blue whales would form a formation to protect the young, and they would beat the attackers with their tails. However, halberd whales also have a troublesome opponent, which is the humpback whale. ”
As he said this, Wuji seemed to recall the rare fortuitous encounters he saw when he was young when he was sailing with his family's elders. He described to Ashley the scene of the orcas hunting: ”In the sea, the most interesting thing is the orcas hunting. These orcas and their prey are all giant beasts, and if you think about it, dozens of them fighting in the sea, the scene itself is very shocking. Whales are really intelligent, especially orcas. I think they can be called the smartest species on Earth besides humans. Not only would they rely on their intelligence to split up and suppress their hunting targets, but when they felt that they might not be strong enough, they would also call for the help of their own kind from nearby. Sometimes, after a long hunting battle, they would gather up two or three groups of orcas that belonged to different communities. In addition, the hunting behavior of the anti-whales was very similar to that of a war between two countries. Apart from the two sides fighting each other, it would also attract the observation and intervention of many other countries. Once, I personally saw a group of dolphins gather around us when we were hunting grey whales. These little fellows actually acted as thugs for the grey whales, and there were also three or four seals who were bravely watching us from a close distance. According to my elders in the family, this is the nature of some animals, who are used to close observation when their natural enemies hunt other targets, in order to familiarize themselves with the enemy's hunting skills so that they can defend themselves. However, seals were also silly animals at times. They were too engrossed in the excitement and were easily attacked by the nearby halberd whales. As long as they find the halberd whale to be hunting, the humpback whale will definitely get excited and come over to stir up trouble for the halberd whale, protecting its prey. Even if there are only two or three humpback whales, it would still dare to interfere with the dozens of halberd whales, and the reason for this kind of behavior is still a mystery. ”
Ashley found all this very interesting, but she still felt a little sorry and sorry for the blue whale's body floating alone on the surface of the sea. But as an animal protector, she understood that she had to abide by the rules and not interfere in the normal competition of nature.
She wondered, however, why such a large blue whale had taken so many days to hunt, and why its carcass was still largely intact and not eaten clean.