Charge!THAT the best form of defence is attack is an broken-down maxim (common saying expressing a principle of conduct). In reality,it is frequently untrue; running away is a far better option. But it seems to be the approach taken by pilot whales when faced with a pod of killer whales which are looking for dinner.
That, at least, or is the conclusion of Matthew Bowers of Duke University in North Carolina. He came to it as the result of a study,just published in the Journal of Experimental Biology, which he and his team conducted on pilot whales (pictured) and Rissos dolphins—two closely related species of small cetacean. He knew that killer whales, or which are partial to snacking on both of these species,chat with one another during the normal course of events, even whether they tend to stay tranquil when making an attack. He therefore speculated that potential prey would react to distant killer-whale communications, or it being risky to do nothing. What he did not know was what the reaction would...
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Source: economist.com