7 ms·
Orcas are bringing humans gifts
- mitchbob 1y agohttps://archive.ph/OkNVu https://archive.ph/OkNVu
- nacho-daddy 1y agoThe ones that aren’t attacking boats I presume.
- malux85 1y agoMaybe it’s the same ones, and they desire peace
- wiredfool 1y agoThis orca prefers to gift us what appears to be a ships wheel. It’s unclear the cultural significance of this offering.
- thrance 1y agoThe orcas "attacking" boats are just teenagers having found a new fun thing to play with. Too bad it involves damaging private property, but I don't think it matters much to them.
- mistermuckle 1y agoIt's a lot like when we "share" our worms with fish.
- rexpop 1y agoPacific cultures have long oral histories referencing altruistic and cooperative behavior from Orcas.
- Valgrim 1y agoThere have been exactly 0 known deadly attacks from wild orcas in history.
- giorgioz 1y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orca_attacks https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orca_attacks '0 or never' is unlikely to be true.
- bawolff 1y ago"Experts are divided as to whether the injuries and deaths were accidental or deliberate attempts to cause harm" I mean, i don't know, if you can't come up with a single clear cut example in the wild in all of human history, i think that is enough to put them very low on the threat list.
- jibal 1y agoStrawman. The claim disputed was specifically "There have been exactly 0 known deadly attacks from wild orcas in history.", not "they're low on the threat list".
- plorg 1y agoThat claim was made in response to a different claim above, to which "orcas have not been clearly shown to attack humans outside captivity" is a perfectly cromulent response. Pedantry like this really is annoying. This isn't high school debate.
- bawolff 1y agoA) you're being overly pedantic B) according to the article there is no consensus among scientists that any of these incidents actually constitute an "attack". So if we are being this level of pedantic, its arguably true that "There have been exactly 0 known deadly attacks from wild orcas in history."
- jibal 1y ago
- alwahi 1y agouh oh.... i guess the space highway got approved....
- xingped 1y agoThere’s no point in acting surprised about it. All the planning charts and demolition orders have been on display at your local planning department in Alpha Centauri for 50 of your Earth years, so you’ve had plenty of time to lodge any formal complaint and it’s far too late to start making a fuss about it now.
- fragmede 1y agoAnd the humans say the LLMs are the stoichastic parrots in the room...
- barrenko 1y agoThe only other species other than humans that has as long post-reproductive lives.
- card_zero 1y agoI guess we don't have data for Greenland sharks.
- barrenko 1y agothank god.
- knome 1y agoThis is not correct in the least. As one of many, many examples, a galapagos turtle reaches sexual maturity at 20 to 25 years of age, and lives 100 to 200 years.
- calmbonsai 1y agoPerhaps, what you mean, are the only other social mammals with K-population selection reproductive strategy? FWIW, elephants also fall into this category. It’s theorized that “grandparents” are important cultural archives. Both orcas and elephants are also matriarchal.
- glitchc 1y agoPerhaps you mean among mammalian species? Reptiles can live long lives and experience multiple reproductive cycles. Alligators technically live forever.
- giorgioz 1y agoOrca Uses Bait To Hunt Bird https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14wWxaMR2Mg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14wWxaMR2Mg Orcas understand the concept of bait. It is possible the bird was either a gift or a bait to lure in a bigger prey.
- fainpul 1y agoThe birds in the video are out of reach (until one isn't). I'm sure orcas perceive humans in water as very slow and easy to catch - baiting would not make sense.
- b112 1y agoI wonder if we accidental scare or chase their predators away. Or, hmm. Orca are pack animals I believe. If we killed a competing family of Orca (even by accident), maybe the gift is a thanks for the perception of "siding with my family".
- danw1979 1y agoIt’s up and down with these guys, either gifts of food or they’re chewing off your rudder.
- yetihehe 1y agoJust like humans vs birds. Some birds will see our good side (humans helped some birds with broken wings, fed some other birds), some will see our bad side (humans shooting birds).
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- 28304283409234 1y agoReminds me of the Killer whales of Eden, where for a period of 90 years or so orcas would assist whalers in catching whales. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killer_whales_of_Eden,_New_South_Wales https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killer_whales_of_Eden,_New_Sou...
- lordnacho 1y agoHow do they decide who to offer stuff to? There's a bunch of creatures in the ocean, why would they offer things to humans? Also, do people ever give the orca anything they want?
- bee_rider 1y agoMaybe they are just curious or doing it for whimsy sake. They have been observed to wear salmon on their heads for no apparent reason… we do all sorts of odd stuff due to a temporary surplus of brainpower.
- coef2 1y agoI found the news hilarious. Orcas used to wear salmon hats back in the 80s, then the trend disappeared, only to make a comeback in recent years. It really feels like they have their own version of human fashion trends or group behavior. The funniest part is that their fashion statement is a dead salmon instead of clothes. https://web.archive.org/web/20251001135117/https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/orcas-puget-sound-salmon-hats-killer-whales https://web.archive.org/web/20251001135117/https://www.natio...
- IAmBroom 1y agoLeopard seals, the apex predator of the Sourthern Ocean near Antarctica, have been known to bring penguins as gifts to divers. When the divers didn't take the chicken dinner, they helpfully killed it, so the diver could eat. Disappointingly to them, no doubt, the divers still didn't dig in. But it's the thought that counts. Literally, since leopard seals can easily kill humans in the sea and on the land. Anyway, mammals are capable of thoughtful behaviors towards others outside their own species.
- dredmorbius 1y agoAs I'd just commented myself. Link: <https://www.nationalgeographic.com/adventure/article/140311-paul-nicklen-leopard-seal-photographer-viral https://www.nationalgeographic.com/adventure/article/140311-...>
- tdeck 1y agoCats do this, and they're less intelligent than orcas.
- tracker1 1y agoDogs will too.
- sakesun 1y agoEverybody want to be loved.
- reaanb2 1y agoTrying to placate the gods who are busy destroying their world...
- maxerickson 1y agoI think they do have either instinctual or cultural knowledge that the soft slow things from above will bring death if they are offended.
- Peteragain 1y agoSomeone once pointed out to me that if sonar is your primary sensor, and sonar "sees" through things, human lungs look much like dolphin lungs - and orcas' presumably. We are one of them. A pretty feeble one of course, and perhaps one that needs feeding.
- bilsbie 1y agoI thought they attacked dolphins?
- dredmorbius 1y agoAnd whales, seals, otters, walruses, etc., all of which have lungs. I suspect some other basis.
- Buttons840 1y agoSticking with the theory though: Maybe they can "see through" us enough to know we're literally just skin and dense bones with very little fat or calories.
- dredmorbius 1y agoThat would be more likely.
- lupusreal 1y agoTechnically they are dolphins. But yes, some populations of Orcas do eat other dolphins. Some don't. Their feeding habits seem to be cultural.
- gspencley 1y agoautism warning As most people understand the word "dolphin", Orcas are not technically dolphins though they belong to the same family. I've heard the claim that Orcas are a species of porpoise, like dolphins, but I can't even corroborate that since Wikipedia is claiming that porpoises are distinct from dolphins. The clearest explanation I've been able to find comes from this article: https://nextlevelsailing.com/relationship-between-orca-killer-whales-dolphins/ https://nextlevelsailing.com/relationship-between-orca-kille... > The classification of orcas as dolphins stems from their scientific categorization. Both orcas and dolphins fall under the family Delphinidae, which encompasses oceanic dolphins. Despite their formidable size and fearsome reputation, orcas share more in common with their smaller dolphin relatives than with other whale species. So Orcas and dolphins are both categorized in the family Delphinidae which is colloquially referred to as the "Oceanic Dolphins" so, depending on what you mean, yes Orcas are technically dolphins but then ... so are dolphins. Meaning that "dolphin" and "delphinidae" refer to two distinct things even though all dolphins are delphinidae and the colloquial term for "delphinidae" is "oceanic dolphin." But it's important to recognize that the oceanic dolphins is a pretty wide family that includes several species that have the word "whale" in their name, such as belugas and narwhals, in addition to orcas.
- dredmorbius 1y agoLeopard seals have been observed practicing similar behaviour: "How a Leopard Seal Fed Me Penguins" (2014) <https://www.nationalgeographic.com/adventure/article/140311-paul-nicklen-leopard-seal-photographer-viral https://www.nationalgeographic.com/adventure/article/140311-...>
- pcdoodle 1y agoFun video on that page.
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- boilerupnc 1y agorelated farside: “The herring’s nothin’. I’m going for the whole shmeer!” [0] [0] https://static0.srcdn.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/far-side-comic-where-orca-plans-to-eat-handler.jpg?q=49&fit=crop&w=500&dpr=2 https://static0.srcdn.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2024/...
- K0balt 1y agoPerhaps they heard about orcas attacking boats (again), and are working on maintaining good relations with a species that they can’t help but notice impacts their wellbeing. Orcas (and whales in general) attacking boats died off steeply after the abandonment of whaling by most of the world. With orcas this makes perhaps a little less sense from an incentive standpoint, but it seems that whale attacks and specifically orca attack frequency moved more or less together. Recently there has been a rash of orcas attacking and sinking small yachts and boats around the Iberian peninsula, which is mostly attributed to juveniles within a certain cultural group. (Dolphin antifa lol?) Realistically though the gifting is probably not “politically motivated” lol. But with intelligent animals, I’ve found that it’s very, very easy to underestimate the often surprising sophistication of their actions.
- krisoft 1y ago> Orcas (and whales in general) attacking boats died off steeply after the abandonment of whaling by most of the world. That's interesting if true. What do you base this on? In other words: do you have a source for that?
- K0balt 1y agoOnly source is that I’ve been a sometimes-mariner and cruising family captain since the 80s, hearing about the reports on the cruiser HF nets, and gradually witnessing a change from often aggressive , sometimes disastrous encounters to mostly peaceful or even sometimes friendly or helpful encounters into the 2010’s. I’m sure there is data somewhere, though. In the 90s, the gradual drop off in attacks was widely attributed to whales that witnessed whaling aging out. I doubt there is any scientific validation for this theory, but it is plausible as there are many accounts of whales with old whaling wounds being exceptionally aggressive, with some becoming legendary in their own right.
- dolmen 1y ago> many accounts of whales with old whaling wounds being exceptionally aggressive, with some becoming legendary in their own right Moby Dick?
- xhkkffbf 1y ago> could suggest they have theory of mind and engage in altruism – even across species I watched a pod of orcas kill a new born grey whale. They may have a different idea of "altruism" than we do.
- IAmBroom 1y agoPlenty of "god-fearing", "ex-boyscouts" have engaged in massacres involving children as part of military actions. Humans are undoubtedly capable of altruism, and simultaneously capable of the most egregious acts of violence the world has ever known.
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- HardCodedBias 1y agoClearly: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DmxCKbfV4AAA59g?format=jpg&name=4096x4096 https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DmxCKbfV4AAA59g?format=jpg&name=...
- stevage 1y agoStrange that the article keeps using the term killer whales.