It may sound funny, but this is a momentous event. It is the first observed occurence of an animal not only developing a new idea and sharing it, but also suffering a short term loss (the fish it was eating) to reap a longer-term reward. Not to mention the fact that it has learned to use the psychology of sea gulls - a completely unrelated animal - to trap them.

They aren't scavenging any more, or even hunting. They are TRAPPING, and doing so intentionally, unlike other predators that may accidentally corner their prey, or be trained to, but never learn to do it repeatedly by themselves. That kind of behavioral development has long been thought to be the exclusive domain of homo sapiens, and a precursor to agriculture.

Will it develop into a full-fledged civilization of killer whales? Only time will tell.

Read the article that is linked. This is called cultural learning and is not the first time this behavior has been observed.

I know about cultural learning. That wasn't what impressed me about the behavior, as I stated above. Lots of animals pass on learned behaviors, there isn't anything special about that. But there is a big difference between "push this lever and a food pellet comes out" and "don't eat the food pellet, it can be used to trap other animals so we can eat them."

I told a friend that if the whales can figure out how to do that utilizing lottery tickets, they'll eat like kings!