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> Or, maybe this is just a new “fad” for juvenile orcas that could go out of fashion as they grow up, Jared Towers, director of Canadian research organization B
by burlesona 4y ago
> Or, maybe this is just a new “fad” for juvenile orcas that could go out of fashion as they grow up, Jared Towers, director of Canadian research organization Bay Cetology, tells NPR. In the 1990s, scientists observed another strange orca trend, but it has since faded away.
> "They'd kill fish and just swim around with this fish on their head," Towers tells NPR. "We just don't see that anymore.”
Imagining the behavioral / fashion trends of Orcas over time is really fascinating :D
- lelandfe 4y ago“Jeeze, Bill. Are you still wearing a dead fish? That’s so 1993”
- dwringer 4y agoDefinitely a Far Side cartoon or two in all of this.
- belter 4y ago"Our delivery Yacht had a serious interaction with a large pod of Orcas" - https://youtu.be/iEpvQKxz5JU https://youtu.be/iEpvQKxz5JU
- koala_man 4y agoOrca memes
- gibolt 4y agoMaybe they finally saw Finding Nemo?
- 9192631770_Hz 4y agoOr maybe got around to reading Douglas Adams. “Hey, you just give dolphins fish? What about us?!”
- giaour 4y agoCalves today are just the worst, amirite? Why can’t they just play “terrorize then eat the seal pup” like we did in my day? I attribute the trouble with today’s youth to an overall decline in the importance of traditional pod values in Orca society.
- dukeofdoom 4y agowho ever is corrupting the young orcas, needs to drink hemlock
- jwdunne 4y agoLet’s hope they don’t start eating tide pods.
- stavros 4y agoOh no, the pods leave when the tide comes in.
- asveikau 4y agoPeople have probably not been watching Orcas closely enough for long enough time to see how cyclical the fads are. "Breaking rudders, really? That's so '80s ... Can't believe that's coming back."
- quakeguy 4y agoRipping whales‘ tongues off! The worst, I tell you!! https://old.reddit.com/r/natureismetal/comments/wwuqhh/orca_rips_a_gray_whales_tongue_off/ https://old.reddit.com/r/natureismetal/comments/wwuqhh/orca_... Edit: NSFL
- 5440 4y agoThanks for making me laugh. Very witty...
- tclancy 4y agoProbably a TikTok thing.
- protomyth 4y agoI'm betting some very intelligent animals realized humans are very reluctant to cause them direct harm (read: very illegal to hurt an orca) and have decide to have some fun with the humans. Tik Tok for orcas would not be a positive, but I get the feeling they are doing a "look what I did" all the same.
- Waterluvian 4y agoThis is probably what you mean, but I imagine it's just a lack of negative evolutionary reinforcement of behaviours cause those behaviours to proliferate. That being said, I'm convinced we continue to deeply underestimate the intelligence and competence of numerous species, even today when we like to talk about how ridiculously smart dolphins and whales and dogs and birds and primates etc... are. I remember thinking, "I will be that dad who does not underestimate my kids capabilities. I won't hold them back." And my 5yo is still absolutely blowing me away with his ability to build complex redstone machines in Minecraft. I think humans are just really good at underestimating competence.
- whimsicalism 4y agoThis is way too fast of a timescale for some selective effect to be the cause.
- Waterluvian 4y agoYeah that's very true. Perhaps I don't mean "evolution" in a classical sense but rather: animals probe the world, and behaviours that aren't discouraged somehow are more likely to be replicated among the community.
- mig39 4y agoInstead of evolution, some sort of epigenics or something?
- smolder 4y agoHow about memetics? I see no reason why memes are only for humans. The orcas must be communicating an idea even if they aren't using words.
- nimbius 4y ago"whats up its ya boi xxKingOrca200 back at it again about to rudderprank this boat sponsored by nord SeaPN you know how we do. shout out to the beluga tier supporters and the silly fishhead bro's in the pod dont forget to like subscribe and ring the diving bell"
- zehaeva 4y agoI can head this in my head.
- bavell 4y agochef's kiss
- birracerveza 4y ago>SeaPN slow clap
- pwdisswordfish9 4y agoSurprised at no mention of NFTs.
- pavlov 4y agoNon Fungible Tuna. When a high-status orca eats a really special tuna, then another lower-status orca can pay to virtually "own" the memory of the eaten tuna.
- sexy_panda 4y agoMeans that big boss will eat it anyway
- marci 4y agoAnd then, Andy Whalol came around and took seashell media by storm by spamming GIFs of his version of NFTs (No Fungicide Tuna, tuna can with organic tomato sauce).
- karatepizza 4y ago
- matthewmcg 4y agoEvening local news story "A DANGEROUS new teen whale trend, next after this break..."
- happytiger 4y agoYea we apparently went from the MyFish era to the FinBook era and we’re so behind we’re only now finding out. The native peoples in the Northwest say the orcas change into people and walk among the villagers. They also say that humans that drown at sea become killer whales and when they interact with boats like this story or swim really close to shore they’re trying to communicate with their human families I’ve always loved that mythos.
- rapind 4y agoIt’s just the “Rudder Challenge”. Y’all need to keep up with tiktok.
- redler 4y agoThis sounds like an old Far Side cartoon.
- klyrs 4y agoThis is one of the rare case an article's payoff is way better than the headline promises.
- fritztastic 4y agoI laughed so hard when I read that. 100% was not expecting anything remotely like this and I'm kind of surprised to have never heard of it before.