Humpback whales have their own form of skincare and day spas, research claims.
Humpback whales use sandy and shallow bays to exfoliate dead skin cells off themselves by rolling around in the sand, research from Griffith University suggests.
As groups of humpback whales, called pods, migrated south between August 2021 and October 2022, a team of researchers monitored their movements, making the discovery.
“On all occasions of sand rolling, the whales were observed on video to be slowly moving forward with their head first into the sand followed by rolling to one side or a full roll,” Marine ecologist Dr Olaf Meynecke said.
“During the different deployments, the sand rolling was observed in the context of socialising. The behaviour was either following courtship, competition or other forms of socialising.”
The whales were monitored and filmed using suction cup trackers which had high-definition video cameras integrated into them.
Marine Biologists observed the pod of whales fully and partially rolling their bodies around in the sand on the seafloor, in about 45 metres of water.
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The activity provides social and health benefits for the whales.
“Humpback whales host diverse communities of skin bacteria that can pose a threat for open wounds if bacteria grow in large numbers,” Meynecke said.
“Removing excess skin is likely a necessity to maintain a healthy bacterial skin community. Humpback whales can remove some barnacles and skin through surface activity such as breaches but not all.”
Barnacles can drag whales down and cause them to lose energy.
Marine biologists also noticed that the exfoliation benefited the ocean’s ecosystem, as they observed small fish feeding on the dead skin cells that fell off the whale’s skin.
