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The article mentions it. One of the most mind-blowing facts is that there has never been a recorded human death caused by an Orca. There are many possible expl

The article mentions it. One of the most mind-blowing facts is that there has never been a recorded human death caused by an Orca. There are many possible explanations for it, selective eaters, not tasty, knowing what they are getting themselves into. At the same time they are curious, playful, and it seems emotional, if they have trends like breaking boats & carrying dead fish. It's a miracle such playfulness never ever accidentally killed a human. After Sperm whales they have the largest brains in the world. Of course big sections of that is dedicated to their complicated bodily functions. But I think we are most likely severely underestimating their intelligence. Edit: "a recorded human death in the wild"

aprdm 4y ago
How would they know it's not tasty if they never tasted it ?
- the_gipsy 4y ago
  Inferrence by smell
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
latchkey 4y ago
More accurately, no wild Orca's have killed humans. 4 people have died from captive Orca's. Seems fitting.
- btilly 4y ago
  3 of them killed by the same orca. My ex was friends with one of them. They were biology students together at the University of Victoria. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Keltie_Byrne https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Keltie_Byrne
tantalor 4y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orca_attack https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orca_attack
richthegeek 4y ago
Maybe you mean in the wild? A high-profile death-by-Orca occurred at Seaworld [1] but I think this was more of an intentional revenge rather than accidental playfulness. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dawn_Brancheau https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dawn_Brancheau
- soneca 4y ago
  Yep, the article has that “in the wild” clarification
- marcusverus 4y ago
  > but I think this was more of an intentional revenge rather than accidental playfulness. At first blush this struck me as a silly comment, so I read the article... and boy, are you right. It really does sound like an intentional, even methodical killing. Here's the description from the wiki: > As part of the end-of-show routine, [Dawn Brancheau] was at the edge of the pool, rubbing Tilikum's head. She was lying with her face next to Tilikum's on a slide-out, which is a platform submerged about a foot into the water. SeaWorld claims that she was pulled into the water by her ponytail. Some witnesses reported seeing Tilikum grab Brancheau by the arm or shoulder. The orca's move seems to have been very quick, pulling her underwater and drowning her. At least a dozen patrons witnessed Brancheau in the water with Tilikum. Employees used nets and threw food at Tilikum in an attempt to distract him. Moving from pool to pool in the complex, they eventually directed Tilikum to a smaller, medical pool, where it would be easier to calm him. After approximately 45 minutes, Tilikum released Brancheau's body. I suppose I'm anthropomorphizing and making a lot of assumptions, but holding that poor woman under water for 45 minutes strikes me as making sure that she's dead--particularly since its caretakers (who, presumably, have a strong understanding of how to influence its behavior) were actively attempting to entice it to let her go. For 45 minutes. Really wild stuff.
  - fsckboy 4y ago
    A different wikipedia page (about another of the people Tilikum killed) describes the incident differently. I have not investigated all the citations to explain the difference: Tilikum became an infamous whale after attacking and killing his trainer, forty-year-old SeaWorld staff member Dawn Brancheau. Tilikum grabbed her arm, scalped the woman, fractured her jaw and killed her by blunt force trauma, the result of which was a contentious and controversial legal case over the safety of working with orca whales and the ethics of keeping live whales and other marine mammals in captivity. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Keltie_Byrne https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Keltie_Byrne
atwood22 4y ago
Well, there haven't been many deaths that we know of. However, the behavior of the orcas seems to be a learned behavior. Obviously they're doing this for a reason. Who knows, maybe this pod of whales has developed a taste? There are a few ways I could see this happening. Perhaps they found a lone sailor, or maybe a small boat of migrants coming from Morocco made an easy target.
moffkalast 4y ago
Because when Orcas kill humans they leave no evidence and no witnesses. They're professionals after all.
- bee_rider 4y ago
  Cetaceans are already pretty fancy, but Orcas wear a tuxedo everywhere, so you know they are pros.
xwdv 4y ago
In the wild most humans do not fuck around with Orcas long enough to find out. I’m fairly certain an Orca would eventually kill a human for fun.
april_22 4y ago
Contrary to sharks, Orca's actually don't have the ability to smell https://www.treehugger.com/surprising-facts-about-orcas-4864347 https://www.treehugger.com/surprising-facts-about-orcas-4864...
- 1vuio0pswjnm7 4y ago
  Aside: In the Links text-only browser, the HTML on www.treehugger.com breaks the a tags so that the href URLs do not work.
JustSomeNobody 4y ago
Not enough people tend to swim in the waters they thrive in. And the ones that do are experienced enough not to push things. Sharks on the other hand, swim in waters people tend to frequent. It's a numbers game.
- robotkdick 4y ago
  The higher number of shark attacks may also have to do with water conditions, which could lead a shark to mistakenly interpret a human as food or competition for food: "A large number of (shark) bites occur when water conditions are poor" - https://saveourseas.com/worldofsharks/why-do-sharks-bite-people
havblue 4y ago
Google says that there are about a billion sharks in the world but only 50k orcas. Meanwhile there are only about 10 humans killed by sharks a year. So zero recorded humans killed by orcas isn't that surprising. I wouldn't personally volunteer to swim with them. Edit: granted, I didn't mention that it's typically great white, tiger and bulls that are life threatening among sharks. So it isn't really a billion versus 50k. Regardless, there aren't really that many fatalities by sharks per year.
- jiggywiggy 4y ago
  Latest estimation is that that are only 3500 great whites with more then 300+ recorded attacks, excluding other types of sharks. Next to that Orcas frequently interact with humans, more than sharks. For instance as this article describes, they are quite active in the tiny mediterranean sea. Which some human even swim across (60 attempts per year). Also they live close to the surface, they need to breath every 5-15 minutes. And just as sharks they enjoy Sea Lions, which sharks often confuse with humans.
  - failTide 4y ago
    3500 sounds low IMO when you look at some of the drone videos in SoCal of the people tracking these (mostly juveniles in SoCal). Also they don't often confuse Sea Lions for humans, but it's still a good explanation for the few attacks that do occur. It's actually impressive how good they are at recognizing their prey.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- thaumasiotes 4y ago
  > Google says that there are about a billion sharks in the world but only 50k orcas. Meanwhile there are only about 10 humans killed by sharks a year. So zero recorded humans killed by orcas isn't that surprising. I wouldn't personally volunteer to swim with them. Sharks are a group of taxonomical orders. Orcas are a species. You wouldn't want to swim with them anyway, for the same reason you wouldn't want to run with a herd of stampeding cows.
ilyagr 4y ago
Here's a video of wild orcas cautiously playing with a human: https://youtu.be/bTIcQMwYC1o https://youtu.be/bTIcQMwYC1o. The description of the video is worth reading for context.
spanktheuser 4y ago
> knowing what they are getting themselves into I've noticed a real hesitancy to ascribe such complex reasoning to cetaceans. But these are thoughtful animals that in one instance led the creation of a complex and astonishingly cooperative co-hunting relationship with human whalers. They clearly understand humans are able to kill baleen whales even orcas can't handle (adult humpbacks, for example). It seems obvious that they also understand the potential consequences of competing with / preying upon a highly social alpha predator.
bigbacaloa 4y ago
Very few people are stupid enough to swim with orcas. They kill blue whales, sperm whales, and great white sharks. The notion that orcas are anything other than apex predators is just silly.
- throwaway67743 4y ago
  Not only do they kill, they figured out if you flip a shark they'll pass out and they can nibble at leisure, that's a bit more intelligence than "idiots biting rudders" which seems to be the current theory sadly https://www.sharktrust.org/tonic-immobility https://www.sharktrust.org/tonic-immobility
Tiktaalik 4y ago
There was that recent BBC nature documentary that showed hunting behaviour by Orcas in Antarctica using self created waves to knock seals off ice floes and into the water that also had a "behind the scenes" part after that disturbingly seemed to suggest that the Orcas had a go at the same technique to try to knock the camera crew off their zodiac and into the water.
- throwaway67743 4y ago
  It's possible that they're capable of recognising intelligence in another species, like we are, so that may just be play... Or they think you might be a seal in a human costume
  - ironmagma 4y ago
    Or they might be trying to kill. It's not unheard of for nature to attack humans.
    - throwaway67743 4y ago
      Not usually out of desire, dolphins are a little rapey but they think it's a game, orca are more intelligent than dolphins and do not attack unprovoked and even then have proved they will avoid human casualties
      - ironmagma 4y ago
        False. Killer whales have bitten surfers and generally attacked humans plenty, it’s just that in the wild there hasn’t been any (recorded) fatality. And you can anthropomorphize dolphins all you want but there’s no way to know what an animal’s intentions or understanding are.
  - throwaway67743 4y ago
    Downvotes on recognising something other than human as intelligent says it all - may as well be on reddit, you unenlightened troglodytes.
standy17817 4y ago
Humans first made their way into the oceans relatively recently, often in a boat, and extremely late in the Orca's biological evolution. It wasn't until recently that humans would be numerous enough in the water to be a viable food source for an Orca. Tweak some things about our evolution and Orcas would kill humans often, sometimes for fun. Orcas are the Hannibal Lectors of the Sea.

aprdm 4y ago

How would they know it's not tasty if they never tasted it ?

the_gipsy 4y ago
Inferrence by smell

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

latchkey 4y ago

More accurately, no wild Orca's have killed humans. 4 people have died from captive Orca's. Seems fitting.

btilly 4y ago
3 of them killed by the same orca. My ex was friends with one of them. They were biology students together at the University of Victoria. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Keltie_Byrne https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Keltie_Byrne

tantalor 4y ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orca_attack https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orca_attack

richthegeek 4y ago

Maybe you mean in the wild? A high-profile death-by-Orca occurred at Seaworld [1] but I think this was more of an intentional revenge rather than accidental playfulness. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dawn_Brancheau https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dawn_Brancheau

soneca 4y ago
Yep, the article has that “in the wild” clarification
marcusverus 4y ago
> but I think this was more of an intentional revenge rather than accidental playfulness. At first blush this struck me as a silly comment, so I read the article... and boy, are you right. It really does sound like an intentional, even methodical killing. Here's the description from the wiki: > As part of the end-of-show routine, [Dawn Brancheau] was at the edge of the pool, rubbing Tilikum's head. She was lying with her face next to Tilikum's on a slide-out, which is a platform submerged about a foot into the water. SeaWorld claims that she was pulled into the water by her ponytail. Some witnesses reported seeing Tilikum grab Brancheau by the arm or shoulder. The orca's move seems to have been very quick, pulling her underwater and drowning her. At least a dozen patrons witnessed Brancheau in the water with Tilikum. Employees used nets and threw food at Tilikum in an attempt to distract him. Moving from pool to pool in the complex, they eventually directed Tilikum to a smaller, medical pool, where it would be easier to calm him. After approximately 45 minutes, Tilikum released Brancheau's body. I suppose I'm anthropomorphizing and making a lot of assumptions, but holding that poor woman under water for 45 minutes strikes me as making sure that she's dead--particularly since its caretakers (who, presumably, have a strong understanding of how to influence its behavior) were actively attempting to entice it to let her go. For 45 minutes. Really wild stuff.
- fsckboy 4y ago
  A different wikipedia page (about another of the people Tilikum killed) describes the incident differently. I have not investigated all the citations to explain the difference: Tilikum became an infamous whale after attacking and killing his trainer, forty-year-old SeaWorld staff member Dawn Brancheau. Tilikum grabbed her arm, scalped the woman, fractured her jaw and killed her by blunt force trauma, the result of which was a contentious and controversial legal case over the safety of working with orca whales and the ethics of keeping live whales and other marine mammals in captivity. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Keltie_Byrne https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Keltie_Byrne

atwood22 4y ago

Well, there haven't been many deaths that we know of. However, the behavior of the orcas seems to be a learned behavior. Obviously they're doing this for a reason. Who knows, maybe this pod of whales has developed a taste? There are a few ways I could see this happening. Perhaps they found a lone sailor, or maybe a small boat of migrants coming from Morocco made an easy target.

moffkalast 4y ago

Because when Orcas kill humans they leave no evidence and no witnesses. They're professionals after all.

bee_rider 4y ago
Cetaceans are already pretty fancy, but Orcas wear a tuxedo everywhere, so you know they are pros.

xwdv 4y ago

In the wild most humans do not fuck around with Orcas long enough to find out. I’m fairly certain an Orca would eventually kill a human for fun.

april_22 4y ago

Contrary to sharks, Orca's actually don't have the ability to smell https://www.treehugger.com/surprising-facts-about-orcas-4864347 https://www.treehugger.com/surprising-facts-about-orcas-4864...

1vuio0pswjnm7 4y ago
Aside: In the Links text-only browser, the HTML on www.treehugger.com breaks the a tags so that the href URLs do not work.

JustSomeNobody 4y ago

Not enough people tend to swim in the waters they thrive in. And the ones that do are experienced enough not to push things. Sharks on the other hand, swim in waters people tend to frequent. It's a numbers game.

robotkdick 4y ago
The higher number of shark attacks may also have to do with water conditions, which could lead a shark to mistakenly interpret a human as food or competition for food: "A large number of (shark) bites occur when water conditions are poor" - https://saveourseas.com/worldofsharks/why-do-sharks-bite-people

havblue 4y ago

Google says that there are about a billion sharks in the world but only 50k orcas. Meanwhile there are only about 10 humans killed by sharks a year. So zero recorded humans killed by orcas isn't that surprising. I wouldn't personally volunteer to swim with them. Edit: granted, I didn't mention that it's typically great white, tiger and bulls that are life threatening among sharks. So it isn't really a billion versus 50k. Regardless, there aren't really that many fatalities by sharks per year.

jiggywiggy 4y ago
Latest estimation is that that are only 3500 great whites with more then 300+ recorded attacks, excluding other types of sharks. Next to that Orcas frequently interact with humans, more than sharks. For instance as this article describes, they are quite active in the tiny mediterranean sea. Which some human even swim across (60 attempts per year). Also they live close to the surface, they need to breath every 5-15 minutes. And just as sharks they enjoy Sea Lions, which sharks often confuse with humans.
- failTide 4y ago
  3500 sounds low IMO when you look at some of the drone videos in SoCal of the people tracking these (mostly juveniles in SoCal). Also they don't often confuse Sea Lions for humans, but it's still a good explanation for the few attacks that do occur. It's actually impressive how good they are at recognizing their prey.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
thaumasiotes 4y ago
> Google says that there are about a billion sharks in the world but only 50k orcas. Meanwhile there are only about 10 humans killed by sharks a year. So zero recorded humans killed by orcas isn't that surprising. I wouldn't personally volunteer to swim with them. Sharks are a group of taxonomical orders. Orcas are a species. You wouldn't want to swim with them anyway, for the same reason you wouldn't want to run with a herd of stampeding cows.

ilyagr 4y ago

Here's a video of wild orcas cautiously playing with a human: https://youtu.be/bTIcQMwYC1o https://youtu.be/bTIcQMwYC1o. The description of the video is worth reading for context.

spanktheuser 4y ago

> knowing what they are getting themselves into I've noticed a real hesitancy to ascribe such complex reasoning to cetaceans. But these are thoughtful animals that in one instance led the creation of a complex and astonishingly cooperative co-hunting relationship with human whalers. They clearly understand humans are able to kill baleen whales even orcas can't handle (adult humpbacks, for example). It seems obvious that they also understand the potential consequences of competing with / preying upon a highly social alpha predator.

bigbacaloa 4y ago

Very few people are stupid enough to swim with orcas. They kill blue whales, sperm whales, and great white sharks. The notion that orcas are anything other than apex predators is just silly.

throwaway67743 4y ago
Not only do they kill, they figured out if you flip a shark they'll pass out and they can nibble at leisure, that's a bit more intelligence than "idiots biting rudders" which seems to be the current theory sadly https://www.sharktrust.org/tonic-immobility https://www.sharktrust.org/tonic-immobility

Tiktaalik 4y ago

There was that recent BBC nature documentary that showed hunting behaviour by Orcas in Antarctica using self created waves to knock seals off ice floes and into the water that also had a "behind the scenes" part after that disturbingly seemed to suggest that the Orcas had a go at the same technique to try to knock the camera crew off their zodiac and into the water.

throwaway67743 4y ago
It's possible that they're capable of recognising intelligence in another species, like we are, so that may just be play... Or they think you might be a seal in a human costume
- ironmagma 4y ago
  Or they might be trying to kill. It's not unheard of for nature to attack humans.
  - throwaway67743 4y ago
    Not usually out of desire, dolphins are a little rapey but they think it's a game, orca are more intelligent than dolphins and do not attack unprovoked and even then have proved they will avoid human casualties
    - ironmagma 4y ago
      False. Killer whales have bitten surfers and generally attacked humans plenty, it’s just that in the wild there hasn’t been any (recorded) fatality. And you can anthropomorphize dolphins all you want but there’s no way to know what an animal’s intentions or understanding are.
- throwaway67743 4y ago
  Downvotes on recognising something other than human as intelligent says it all - may as well be on reddit, you unenlightened troglodytes.

standy17817 4y ago

Humans first made their way into the oceans relatively recently, often in a boat, and extremely late in the Orca's biological evolution. It wasn't until recently that humans would be numerous enough in the water to be a viable food source for an Orca. Tweak some things about our evolution and Orcas would kill humans often, sometimes for fun. Orcas are the Hannibal Lectors of the Sea.