An orca species that helped humans hunt whales for thousands of years may now be extinct, new research reveals
Thaua hunters sang to orcas as they hunted whales side-by-side for thousands of years. Enrique Marcarian/Reuters An orca species that hunted alongside humans for thousands of years is likely locally extinct. The finding is thanks to DNA analysis of a 100-year-old skeleton and knowledge from the Thaua people. Orcas swam alongside Thaua hunters and led them to whales for thousands of years. For thousands of years, the Thaua people — members of the Yuin nation in eastern Australia — had an exceptional whale hunting strategy, a new study in the peer-reviewed Journal of Heredity described. Thaua hunters learned that they could work together with orcas in Australia's Twofold Bay, helping lead them straight to their prey. Some Thaua hunters even sang to the orcas to encourage them to herd whales inland. After the hunters killed the whales, the orcas would eat only the lips and tongue, while the hunters would take the rest, Steven Holmes, a Thaua Traditional Custodian and coaut...