As if orcas weren’t frightening enough, experts think they are getting even smarter as they have started to learn some terrifying new behaviours. The whale species, commonly known as killer whales, is an apex predator that has learned to adapt its hunting methods to a variety of different prey. In March 2019, researchers were stunned when they witnessed the first documented case of a pod of orcas working as a team to kill one of the largest animals on the planet, a blue whale. The gruesome incident took place on the coast of southwestern Australia as experts watched as a dozen orcas bit chunks out of the adult blue whale, slowly wearing it down until it finally died an hour later. While it may have been the first recorded case, it has not been the last. Additionally, a small population of orcas on the coast of Spain and Portugal have become fans of ramming and damaging boats, sometimes causing enough destruction to sink them. Elsewhere, orcas have been seen abducting baby pilot whales and tearing the livers out of sharks that later wash up on shore. Deborah Giles, an orca researcher at the University of Washington and the nonprofit Wild Orca explained to Live Science: “These are animals with an incredibly complex and highly evolved brain. They've got parts of their brain that are associated with memory and emotion that are significantly more developed than even in the human brain.” But, while the actual anatomy of the animals’ brains hasn’t changed, their ability to learn is what is making orcas smarter than ever before. They implement what is known as social learning, where younger members of the pods observe and learn hunting methods from the adults, particularly the dominant matriarch, who themselves, are always learning. Josh McInnes, a marine ecologist at the University of British Columbia, explained: “This behaviour may be being shared between individuals, and that's maybe why we're seeing an increase in some of these mortality events.” But, while experts think they are getting smarter, they also think it may be leading to the breakup of large pods of orcas. Michael Weiss, a behavioural ecologist and research director at the Center for Whale Research in Washington state, said: “Their social bonds get weaker because you can't be in a big partying killer whale group if you're all hungry and trying to search for food.” Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter How to join the indy100's free WhatsApp channel Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

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Elon Musk has been accused of acting like “a little baby” and being “almost in tears” during an earnings call in which the billionaire struck a pessimistic tone about the economy. The Tesla CEO’s behaviour on the third-quarter earnings call was slammed as “terrible” by financial analyst Kevin Paffrath and the electric automaker’s stock price dropped 15 per cent in the two days following it. “For a leader to cry about the economy rather than funnelling that and coming up with a plan is pathetic,” Mr Paffrath, who owns Tesla stock, told Yahoo Finance. And he added: “We need to know the light is at the end of the tunnel rather than hearing a complaining CEO who’s not actually providing that path.” Tesla reported weaker-than-expected third-quarter results, with both earnings per share and revenue of $23.35bn falling short of analysts’ estimates, according to Yahoo Finance. But despite the issues as of Friday, the company’s share price was up 96 per cent year-to-date. Mr Paffrath, a YouTuber with 1.9 million followers, was not the only analyst to criticise Mr Musk’s performance. Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives described the call as a “mini disaster” during which a “cautious” Mr Musk downplayed expectations for the Cybertruck and focused on high interest rates. “We dug our own grave with Cybertruck” Mr Musk said on the call, calling it a “great product” but also said he wanted to “temper expectations” for the long-awaited pickup truck. “Demand is off the charts. We have over 1 million people who have reserved the car, so it’s not a demand issue,” he said. “But we have to make it, and we need to make it a price that people can afford, insanely difficult things.” The Independent has reached out to Tesla for comment. Read More Slack to retire its status account on Elon Musk’s X Tesla’s profits dip as Musk goes on rant about staff working from home Elon Musk’s X may charge some users $1 a year to post on platform