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Nice article: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jun/30/orca-kelp-massage-grooming https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jun/30/orca-k... T

Nice article: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jun/30/orca-kelp-massage-grooming https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jun/30/orca-k... These supposedly serious cetaceans have been spotted massaging each other with kelp stalks. This is the sort of performative nonsense you’d expect from dolphins

swores 1y ago
Killer Whales, aka Orcas, actually are dolphins! And they got their name as a mistranslation into English - if I remember correctly they were originally named in Spanish as "killers of whales" or "whale killers", because they do that
- Nunanol 1y ago
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- ceph_ 1y ago
  All dolphins are whales. Not all whales are dolphins. It's a square / rectangle situation. Orcas are indeed dolphins, and also whales.
- thaumasiotes 1y ago
  > if I remember correctly they were originally named in Spanish as "killers of whales" or "whale killers", because they do that Wiktionary supports that etymology, and it is generally a high-quality source for etymology, but it's troubling that this one isn't cited.
libraryofbabel 1y ago
My absolute favorite Orca culture story (yes they have transmissible culture!) is the “salmon hat craze,” where the Orcas carry dead salmon around on their heads, apparently just for fun: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salmon_hat https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salmon_hat When you’re the apex predator of the world’s oceans you can get away with all sorts of silly nonsense!