MASS SUICIDE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 49, 27 February 1937, Page 11

MASS SUICIDE.

TABLE BAY WHALES.

DASHED TO DEATH ON ROCKS.

PUZZLE FOR SCIENTISTS.

(I'"r<..n Our Own ''<>rre«pond«>n! ) CAI'KTOW.V, January HO, Scientists in ( h|M"l own btp puzzled liy I hi' mass 7-ui<• illl' of « school of false killer whales reported from St (»||| ]ill('Us, nil the const alinut I'M) miles IH ill ll (if In tile liny. Alxnn .'l"i w lulled. mnics ihii! females, with "lie calf. dashed t lie lit ft* I\ cs in freil/.N in IT a reet nllil landed up ill the lillilel nw 11l alxi\e hijjll wilier mark. The whales were lerrild\ eut about liv tlie i-lu«i 11 rm-kn in their Mingles. aml miiiic nt lliem even lirnke t heir t eet ll nil t lie I nck s. Olllv a year ajjo Hlinther school nf false killer whales da-lied t hcnisclves In death in the Mime way near the same s|>nt, and the Mime tiling lia]i]ieli(»d

nearer Cupel own ill l!f>K, Nobody ran explain tin 1 urge that impels tlu' whales to suicide. Some of the. explanations are that I lie whale* go | mad; that »and chinned up in the water irritate* them ■ that tliev dash into jshallovv water in pursuit of fUli. anil .then flounder about until exhausted; itliat they themselves are chased by sharks; and that they are following an ancestral urge. I All these suggestions are mere conjecture, however. Nobody knows why they do it. - - --■ - 7 - i