5 ms·
orcas are awesome, to me, because they showcase cooperation, intelligence, and success unheard of in the animal kingdom. other than humans poisoning them, killi
by nikofeyn 8y ago
orcas are awesome, to me, because they showcase cooperation, intelligence, and success unheard of in the animal kingdom. other than humans poisoning them, killing off and poisoning their food supplies, and hunting them, they have no predators or anything preventing their success. they are truly amazing.
i would even argue that they don't "fight" great whites. orcas are faster, larger, and significantly more intelligent than great white sharks. it seems it is an easy enough kill for the pods that know how to hunt them. in fact, great whites off the coast of south africa have been known to leave the area when orcas arrive. that's right: great whites are seemingly afraid of orcas.
it is sad to me humans don't understand them more and still capture and enslave them for entertainment. we also are wreaking havoc in their ecosystems and food sources. they showcase intelligence i am not aware of in any other animal besides humans.
for example, there is a technique they use such that they trick prey that they are leaving. normally, mammal hunting orcas stop vocalizing when hunting. so by leaving the area and vocalizing after an unsuccessful hunt, they relax their prey by signaling they've given up. however, they have communicated to each other to leave a single orca behind that stays silent to catch the prey once it relaxes. then the rest of the pod comes back to share.
- gpderetta 8y agoApparently they train humans to hunt for them: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killer_whales_of_Eden,_New_South_Wales https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killer_whales_of_Eden,_New_S...
- mojomark 8y agoHoly crap - that's totally what happened. Fascinating... "[Killer whale nicknamed] Old Tom's role was commonly to alert the human whalers to the presence of a baleen whale in the bay by breaching or tailslapping at the mouth of the Kiah River, which is one of the smallest rivers... This role endeared him to the whalers and led to the idea that he was “leader of the pack,” although such a role was more likely taken by a female (as is typical among killer whales)".
- blotter_paper 8y agoToo bad the humans fucked it up by breaking the deal: >Old Tom forced a small whale to the surface, where Davidson harpooned it.[1] Because he wanted to get off the water before a storm arrived, Logan attempted to bring the carcass ashore without Old Tom eating the tongue and lips.[9] Old Tom apparently grabbed the tow rope in his mouth and lost some teeth in the struggle,[7] with Brooks recounting that Logan said "Oh God, what have I done?" when he realised that Old Tom had lost teeth.[1] >When Old Tom's corpse washed ashore in 1930, the mouth had abscesses from missing teeth and he may have died of starvation.[7][9][1]
- nikofeyn 8y agoit really sickens me how much pain humans bring to the world through selfishness. i had heard of the cooperation story and old tom before, but not the conditions of this particular incident and his death. it seems the orcas in his pod disappeared after being hunted by whalers soon after, according to the wiki article.
- abugheratwork 8y agoBe fair. We can bring a lot of pain through cooperation. Cooperating with the orcas seems like a good example.
- kevin_thibedeau 8y agoI'll add a vote for the dolphins that trap fish in shrinking rings of mud. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzfqPQm-ThU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzfqPQm-ThU
- baddox 8y agoNot to downplay their intelligence or hunting abilities, but orca weigh more than five times as much as great white sharks. You wouldn’t really say “that’s right: domestic cats are seemingly afraid of wolves.”
- 3xblah 8y agohttps://theconversation.com/are-sharks-being-attacked-by-killer-whales-off-cape-towns-coast-110373 https://theconversation.com/are-sharks-being-attacked-by-kil... Reminds me of pods that only eat the livers of rays. Whole, dead rays wash up on the beach with only their livers missing.
- SEJeff 8y agoNot only do Orcas not "fight" great whites, but they have learned how to use tonic immobility[1] to get sharks (and sting rays[3]) into a state of complete paralysis before the rest of the pod rips them to shreds and they all feast on the shark. Sharks have one trick against the Orcas, and that is they can dive much much deeper than the whales, and stay under forever. However, a pod of Orcas will force a shark to stay near the surface to tire him out before flipping him upside down to snack on[2]. [1] https://www.sharktrust.org/tonic-immobility https://www.sharktrust.org/tonic-immobility [2] https://allthatsinteresting.com/killer-whales-eat-sharks https://allthatsinteresting.com/killer-whales-eat-sharks [3] https://www.earthtouchnews.com/oceans/whales-and-dolphins/watch-orcas-upside-down-hunting-moves-may-be-a-clever-way-to-zombify-stingrays/ https://www.earthtouchnews.com/oceans/whales-and-dolphins/wa...