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i waste too much time on YouTube. But there is another video of a snorkel diver lady who swears a whale (forget which species) protected her from a shark. It
by Tistel 7y ago
i waste too much time on YouTube. But there is another video of a snorkel diver lady who swears a whale (forget which species) protected her from a shark. It would be nice to think there is some mammal bro behaviour (flipper <-> Hand fist bump!) but evolution has altered our morphology so much I doubt they see us as distant relatives. It took humans ages to see the evolutionary connection from us to everything else. I know a lot of animal hunt mainly on smell. Maybe we smell related. Or taste bad. Or maybe they just find us sufficiently amusing not to merc us.
- 52-6F-62 7y agoI haven’t been lucky enough to encounter them but there are entire bays in Hawaii where only whale sharks will regularly go. Tiger and bull sharks will stay well away most of the time because of the dolphins and dolphins love people. I like to think that they think we’re all just loveable fools à la Douglas Adams.
- tekkk 7y agoAren't seals mammals? And in captivity, killer whales have a killed a few humans, dunno the total count. So I guess they just don't find humans that appetizing in the wild, or just haven't had the chance to try them out. I'm not sure how common it's for humans to swim in the same waters as killer whales. And isn't it quite rare for sharks to attack humans too?
- Semiapies 7y agoI wonder if it's a matter of looking at humans and going, "Wow, that weird little critter has such a hard time moving around." and some protective instinct for injured or sick pod members kicking in. Or maybe we're just ugly-cute to them.
- kevingadd 7y agoI would assume it overlaps with whatever instinct or learned behavior inspires them to kill sharks - if you're not going to kill a shark directly, why not deprive it of a meal?
- puranjay 7y agoThe captivity killings can be explained by the psychosis brought about by keeping an intelligent, social animal in isolation inside a pool
- ceejayoz 7y agoAnd revenge for mistreatment, potentially.
- bcrosby95 7y agoAll sorts of dangerous-to-humans animals are mammals too. I think you're seeing a connection where there isn't one.
- nkrisc 7y agoIn fact many of the animals that could or have actively preyed on humans are mammals: large felines, and to a lesser extent, canines. Reptiles probably take second place though thanks to crocs.
- koonsolo 7y ago> mammal bro behaviour You might be onto something here. Dolphins look cute, and orca's don't look like the killers they really are. Sharks on the other hand look scary. So it works the other way around. But they do eat seals, which are probably closer related to them than us?
- mixmastamyk 7y agoFrom the article it appears orcas are aggressive towards sharks in the area since they are competitors. Likely more territorial than “let me protect this weird water monkey.”
- stjohnswarts 7y agoHumans really tend to anthropomorphize animals but it's about 99% more likely that the orca didn't want the great white in its hunting grounds or near its pod's younglings.