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Gorillas Prevent Disease Spread through Social Distancing, New Study Suggests

Gorillas sit after two of their troop tested positive for COVID-19 after falling ill, and a third gorilla appears also to be symptomatic, at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park in San Diego, California, US January 10, 2021. Picture taken January 10, 2021. Ken Bohn/San Diego Zoo Global/Handout via REUTERS
Gorillas sit after two of their troop tested positive for COVID-19 after falling ill, and a third gorilla appears also to be symptomatic, at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park in San Diego, California, US January 10, 2021. Picture taken January 10, 2021. Ken Bohn/San Diego Zoo Global/Handout via REUTERS
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Gorillas Prevent Disease Spread through Social Distancing, New Study Suggests

Gorillas sit after two of their troop tested positive for COVID-19 after falling ill, and a third gorilla appears also to be symptomatic, at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park in San Diego, California, US January 10, 2021. Picture taken January 10, 2021. Ken Bohn/San Diego Zoo Global/Handout via REUTERS
Gorillas sit after two of their troop tested positive for COVID-19 after falling ill, and a third gorilla appears also to be symptomatic, at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park in San Diego, California, US January 10, 2021. Picture taken January 10, 2021. Ken Bohn/San Diego Zoo Global/Handout via REUTERS

Groups interact fairly infrequently, and when they do they tend to keep their distance, rarely approaching to within that crucial one to two-meter distance, the daily Independent reported. Cough and cold rapidly spread among mountain gorillas, but it seems social distancing can help prevent the spread of illnesses in these animals, suggests a new study.

Respiratory infection is one of the biggest threats to ape conservation. Apes can catch many of the same diseases as humans. However, respiratory infections that are relatively mild in humans can have major consequences in apes like gorillas and chimpanzees, where a case of the common cold or flu can be lethal, say experts.

Scientists from the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund studied 15 respiratory outbreaks across the last 17 years to understand how diseases transmitted through a population of mountain gorillas in the Volcanoes National Park, Rwanda. The study found that the patterns of transmission couldn't be predicted by a group's social network.

In one outbreak, it took only three days for 45 out of 46 group members to begin coughing. Yet, the researchers found that opportunities for infections to spread between neighboring groups were limited.

"The outbreaks we investigated all appeared to stay within a single group rather than spreading through the wider population. Gorilla groups interact fairly infrequently, and when they do, they tend to keep their distance," said Yvonne Mushimiyimana, a co-author on the project.

According to researchers, this aloofness toward neighboring groups may actually help protect the wider population by limiting broader transmission of these infections. Other studies in wild apes have shown that respiratory outbreaks are almost exclusively caused by pathogens of human origin.

"If we can better understand how diseases have spread in the past, we can better prepare for and respond to outbreaks in the future. Our best guess is that these infections in mountain gorillas are coming from humans," said Dr. Robin Morrison, lead author on the study.

"It really highlights the importance of ongoing efforts to minimize wild great ape exposure to human diseases during activities like research, tourism and protection," he added.

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Killer Whales Spotted Grooming Each Other with Seaweed

This handout frame grab taken from video footage provided by whale rescue group Organization for the Rescue and Research of Cetaceans in Australia (ORRCA) on June 9, 2025 shows a distressed humpback whale tangled in a rope swimming south of Sydney Harbour. (Photo by Handout and Clay Sweetman / ORRCA / AFP)
This handout frame grab taken from video footage provided by whale rescue group Organization for the Rescue and Research of Cetaceans in Australia (ORRCA) on June 9, 2025 shows a distressed humpback whale tangled in a rope swimming south of Sydney Harbour. (Photo by Handout and Clay Sweetman / ORRCA / AFP)
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Killer Whales Spotted Grooming Each Other with Seaweed

This handout frame grab taken from video footage provided by whale rescue group Organization for the Rescue and Research of Cetaceans in Australia (ORRCA) on June 9, 2025 shows a distressed humpback whale tangled in a rope swimming south of Sydney Harbour. (Photo by Handout and Clay Sweetman / ORRCA / AFP)
This handout frame grab taken from video footage provided by whale rescue group Organization for the Rescue and Research of Cetaceans in Australia (ORRCA) on June 9, 2025 shows a distressed humpback whale tangled in a rope swimming south of Sydney Harbour. (Photo by Handout and Clay Sweetman / ORRCA / AFP)

Killer whales have been caught on video breaking off pieces of seaweed to rub and groom each other, scientists announced Monday, in what they said is the first evidence of marine mammals making their own tools.

Humans are far from being the only member of the animal kingdom that has mastered using tools. Chimpanzees fashion sticks to fish for termites, crows create hooked twigs to catch grubs and elephants swat flies with branches.

Tool-use in the world's difficult-to-study oceans is rarer, however sea otters are known to smash open shellfish with rocks, while octopuses can make mobile homes out of coconut shells.

A study published in the journal Current Biology describes a new example of tool use by a critically endangered population of orcas., AFP reported.

Scientists have been monitoring the southern resident killer whales in the Salish Sea, between Canada's British Columbia and the US state of Washington, for more than 50 years.

Rachel John, a Masters student at Exeter University in the UK, told a press conference that she first noticed "something kind of weird" going on while watching drone camera footage last year.

The researchers went back over old footage and were surprised to find this behavior is quite common, documenting 30 examples over eight days.

One whale would use its teeth to break off a piece of bull kelp, which is strong but flexible like a garden hose.

It would then put the kelp between its body and the body of another whale, and they would rub it between them for several minutes.

The pair forms an "S" shape to keep the seaweed positioned between their bodies as they roll around.

Whales are already known to frolic through seaweed in a practice called "kelping".

They are thought to do this partly for fun, partly to use the seaweed to scrub their bodies to remove dead skin.

The international team of researchers called the new behavior "allokelping," which means kelping with another whale.

They found that killer whales with more dead skin were more likely to engage in the activity, cautioning that it was a small sample size.

Whales also tended to pair up with family members or others of a similar age, suggesting the activity has a social element.

The scientists said it was the first known example of a marine mammal manufacturing a tool.

Janet Mann, a biologist at Georgetown University not involved in the study, praised the research but said it "went a bit too far" in some of its claims.

Bottlenose dolphins that use marine sponges to trawl for prey could also be considered to be manufacturing tools, she told AFP.

And it could be argued that other whales known to use nets of bubbles or plumes of mud to hunt represent tool-use benefitting multiple individuals, another first claimed in the paper, Mann said.

Michael Weiss, research director at the Center for Whale Research and the study's lead author, said it appeared to be just the latest example of socially learned behavior among animals that could be considered "culture".

But the number of southern resident killer whales has dwindled to just 73, meaning we could soon lose this unique cultural tradition, he warned.

"If they disappear, we're never getting any of that back," he said.

The whales mainly eat Chinook salmon, whose numbers have plummeted due to overfishing, climate change, habitat destruction and other forms of human interference.

The orcas and salmon are not alone -- undersea kelp forests have also been devastated as ocean temperatures rise.

Unless something changes, the outlook for southern resident killer whales is "very bleak," Weiss warned.