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My understanding is that we think Orcas are speciating already with some focusing on hunting seals and others hunting salmon and they don't have overlapping hun
by burtonator 8y ago
My understanding is that we think Orcas are speciating already with some focusing on hunting seals and others hunting salmon and they don't have overlapping hunting grounds.
Additionally they seem to differentiate and prefer their 'own' type so we might be actually witnessing a new species there in and of itself.
- idlewords 8y agoIt's hard to be sure this is speciation because orcas teach each other to hunt. So these differences across populations could be cultural!
- nikofeyn 8y agoorcas definitely have culture, but these type d really look quite different from other orcas. in an article i read about these type d orcas, it mentioned that scientists have considered before whether the other types should be separate species or not. to my knowledge, they do not interbreed between types, and if they do or can, it is rare. there are other orca types that are still poorly understood, including the offshore orcas in the pacific northwest.