In 1820, The Essex, a whaling ship, was attacked and sunk by two head-on strikes from a sperm whale near the Galapagos Islands in the Pacific Ocean. “It appeared with tenfold fury and vengeance in his aspect,” the first mate Owen Chase later wrote. “The surf flew in all directions about him with the continual violent thrashing of his tail. His head about half out of the water, and in that way he came upon us, and again struck the ship.”
The demise of The Essex and the ordeal suffered by its stranded crew would later inspire Herman Melville to write Moby Dick. But are sperm whales really prone to headbutting? They are, according to research published today in Marine Mammal Science.
Using three drones, researchers from the University of St. Andrews in Scotland monitoring sperm whales around the Azores and Balearic islands serendipitously captured young males on camera ramming each other with their heads for the first time.
“It was really exciting to observe this behavior, which we knew had been hypothesized for such a long time, but not yet documented and described systematically,” study author Alec Burlem, now at the University of Hawaii, said in a statement.
Marine biologists previously speculated that this kind of headbutting could be a key part of competition between sexually mature males, seldom seen because it occurred beneath the surface. Others were skeptical, however. A sperm whale’s massive noggin contains organs vital for producing the sounds used in echolocation and communication, and wielding it as a weapon may not have been the best strategy, they theorized.
Read more: “Do Whales Have Culture?”
While this dramatic video footage seems to settle the debate, the researchers say more study is needed to place this behavior in its proper context and determine its effects on group cohesion and social dynamics.
In the meantime, Burlem is crediting the use of unmanned drones with the accidental discovery and calling on other drone pilots to submit their whale footage for examination.
“It’s exciting to think about what as-yet unseen behaviors we may soon uncover, as well as how more headbutting observations may help us to shed light on the functions the behaviour may serve,” he said. “If there are people out there with similar footage, we would be very keen to hear from them.”
Just be sure to keep your distance. 
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Lead image: Catmando / Shutterstock
