PROOF THAT WHALES GRIEVE TOO

Plastic is spreading like a disease in our oceans. Producing Blue Planet II we knew we couldn’t ignore it any longer. So when cameraman Rafa Herrero showed us shocking shots of a dead pilot whale calf, we knew we had to use them. The baby was being carried in the mouth of its mother (above) off the Canary Islands.

The calf was probably killed by toxic plastic residues in its mother’s milk. Rafa had intimate footage of the whole family of whales in the clear blue water of the mid-atlantic, their soulful eyes gazing into the camera. They seemed to be mourning for the dead calf. But was that possible? We doublechecked the science on whether whales can experience emotions as we understand them. One important piece of evidence comes from so-called ‘spindle cells’ in the brain: long and thin when seen under the microscope, these cells in humans are thought to play a crucial role when we feel love and emotion. Whales not only have these spindle cells, but they are three times more numerous than in humans.

The dead calf was passed between members of the family for two days as they appeared to grieve. Sir David Attenborough made changes to our script, simplifying it as he often does. His final analysis read, ‘The creatures that live in the Big Blue are more remote from the influence of humanity than any animals on the planet. But not remote enough, it seems, to escape the effects of what we are doing to their world.’