The observations come from a nine-year study of the Pacific Coast Feeding Group (PCFG) of gray whales, a small subgroup of roughly 213 individuals within the Eastern North Pacific population of about 17,750. Unlike the rest of the population, which migrates between Arctic feeding grounds and Baja California, PCFG whales stay put, foraging in shallow coastal waters less than 20 meters deep between Northern California and Southern British Columbia. Their accessibility makes them ideal subjects for drone-based behavioral research, and their diverse repertoire of foraging tactics makes them ideal for studying how behaviors might pass from one generation to the next.

PCFG gray whales employ an unusually varied set of feeding strategies that target prey throughout the water column. Some whales feed at the surface, snapping their jaws while frequently turning. Others swim forward on their side, upside down, or belly-up below the surface. Still others perform stationary side-swims or dramatic headstands, pushing their heads into the seafloor through powerful fluke beats and pectoral fin action. Individual whales do not use these tactics uniformly; tactic choice is linked to body length, a proxy for age, and to the type of seafloor habitat. Because many calves born to PCFG mothers later join the feeding group themselves, researchers suspected that calves might be learning these tactics, and where to use them, directly from their mothers during the roughly seven months between birth and weaning.

Testing that idea required seeing what happens underwater, which is where drones transformed the field. Between May and October of 2016 through 2025, survey teams from a small rigid hull inflatable boat launched five different consumer drones to film whales from above. The boat kept at least 75 meters from the animals to avoid disturbing them, and pilots recorded roughly 15 minutes of continuous video per flight, tracking whales both at the surface and while submerged. A single experienced analyst then annotated every clip of a mother-calf pair in open-source behavioral coding software, using an ethogram of ten distinct behaviors and reviewing each clip at least twice per individual.

The resulting dataset included 15 mother-calf pairs from 13 unique mothers. In nine of those pairs, the mother was observed performing a foraging tactic with her calf nearby, and those pairs were filmed for significantly longer periods, with a median observation time of nearly 14 minutes, than the six pairs in which no foraging was seen, which were observed for a median of just over three minutes and spent their time at the surface or nursing. Crucially, of the nine calves whose mothers were seen foraging, six calves began foraging themselves. Every one of those six calves started its foraging tactic only after its mother had begun hers, on average about 13 seconds later, though the delay ranged from less than a second to nearly 49 seconds.

When the researchers compared the specific tactics calves used across 21 foraging dives, a striking pattern emerged. In nine dives, or 42.9 percent, the calf performed exactly the same tactic as its mother. In three other dives, the calf used a tactic its mother had performed earlier in the same observation period, hinting at delayed imitation of the kind documented in captive bottlenose dolphins. In four more dives, the calf used a tactic belonging to the same functional group as its mother’s, meaning the behaviors share similarities in form. And in five dives, the calf performed a body roll while its mother was headstanding, a behavior the researchers interpret as a failed but telling attempt to imitate a physically demanding maneuver.

The body rolls are the study’s most compelling evidence for imitation. Because the calves showed no visible feeding during the rolls and were nowhere near where their mothers’ heads were digging into the seafloor, the behavior cannot be explained as goal emulation or simple enhancement, in which an observer learns only what to feed on or where to feed. Instead, the researchers argue, the rolls represent an effort to reproduce the opaque body movements of the headstand itself. Headstanding is a steep dive combined with a roll, often held upside down and pitched for long durations, with a mean of 55 seconds, and it is used primarily by long, mature whales thought to be physically capable of the feat. The calves did not roll continuously; they paused mid-roll in the upside-down position, as though attempting to match the posture of the headstand but lacking the strength or coordination to complete it. Because the rolls always followed a mother’s headstand and have rarely been seen in any other context, they appear to be imperfect imitation attempts by young whales reaching beyond their physical abilities.

The study also found evidence that lessons learned at a mother’s side persist. Five of the 15 calves were later observed foraging independently in subsequent years. Four, seen as one- or two-year-olds, used surface feeding or forward-swimming tactics, and both individuals observed forward-swimming had watched their mothers forward-swim as calves, with one having performed the tactic alongside her. The fifth calf, which had watched its mother headstand and even attempted headstanding as a calf, was observed headstanding at six years old, consistent with a known developmental shift in PCFG whales from forward-swimming tactics toward headstanding as they mature. The researchers also noted two calves performing bubble blasts, underwater releases of air that rise to the surface in a circle. Although the mothers were not seen blasting at the time, both had been observed bubble blasting in previous years, and the calves’ behavior may reflect local enhancement, learning from experience in which contexts the buoyancy-regulating behavior is useful.

What makes these findings scientifically significant is how they were obtained. Most evidence of social learning and culture in cetaceans comes from diffusion analyses, which track how a behavior spreads through a population over time, such as the vertical transmission of sponging in Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins or the horizontal spread of lobtail feeding in humpback whales. Those approaches can reveal that a behavior is transmitted but not the specific learning mechanism behind it. Direct observation of mother-calf pairs, made possible by drones, allowed the researchers to match the timing and form of behaviors moment by moment, distinguishing among imitation, enhancement, and simpler social influence, in which a calf merely performs a tactic because its mother happens to be doing so. The calves’ later independent use of the tactics suggests genuine social learning rather than fleeting social contagion.

If gray whales are indeed capable of motor imitation, the implications extend well beyond one species. Imitation has long been considered a window into advanced cognition, and most documented evidence outside primates has come from animals in human care, including toothed whales such as bottlenose dolphins, orcas, and belugas. This study provides the strongest evidence yet that such processes underlie social learning in baleen whales, and the first suggestion of foraging culture in gray whales. Because culture is increasingly recognized as a factor in conservation, informing how populations are delineated and managed, understanding that these whales may inherit not just genes but feeding traditions could shape how scientists protect the small PCFG subgroup. For now, the image of a calf rolling upside down in the shallows, trying and failing to stand on its head like its mother, offers a rare and vivid glimpse of learning in progress in one of the ocean’s most iconic travelers.

Subject of Research: Social learning and imitation in gray whale mother-calf pairs observed via drone footage

Article Title: Whale See, Whale Do: Drone Observations Reveal Social Learning Processes in Mom‐Calf Pairs

Article References: Bird, C. N., & Torres, L. G. (2026). Whale See, Whale Do: Drone Observations Reveal Social Learning Processes in Mom‐Calf Pairs. Ecology and Evolution, 16(10), Article e74517. https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.74517

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1002/ece3.74517

Keywords: gray whales, social learning, imitation, drones, foraging behavior, animal culture, cetaceans, mother-calf pairs, behavioral ecology, Pacific Coast Feeding Group, conservation, marine mammals