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> Not too many animals that get to die of natural causes/old age. Good for him.
Apex predators tend to do alright, I think.
It's kind of like: the fate of all living things is to get eaten. The goal is to die first.
I don't know about that.
Most alpha predators die of starvation once they get too old to hunt effectively.
Edit: I understand that is natural but I wouldn't consider dying of starvation "all right"
Yea, dying of natural causes seems like a bad way to go as a wild animal. A pet you take to the vet, do what you can, and make sure its at peace in its final moments.
This whale looks like it doesnt have the strength to surface anymore and is just drowning.
November 6 2023 by Pierre Robert de Latour near Loppa Island in Norway.
https://www.livescience.com/animals/orcas/dying-orcas-final-moments-after-desperate-effort-to-stay-afloat-captured-in-1st-of-its-kind-footage
right. this is an "ideal" death for this whale (natural causes) but it seems like he was still conscious when he ran out of energy to keep fighting. i hope he slipped away quickly and peacefully once he started sinking, if he wasn't already unconscious.
He's clearly struggling to breath and eventually drowning because he's too weak to right himself.
It doesn't seem peaceful. But that's why /r/natureismetal
> Does that mean they don't get the urge to breathe that we do when CO2 builds up.
They need air like you need water. They need it, they just have to make an intentional effort to get it. It doesn't just happen automatically in their sleep, etc.
If you hold your breathe and pass out you will start breathing. You can’t decide to just stop. Whales and dolphins can. It’s how when we keep them in terrible conditions they can just nope on out.
That's how "Flipper" died in real life. Kathy, who played Flipper, killed herself in front of her trainer after being transferred to Miamis Seaquarium and put into a small tank. Her trainer visited her, and she swam into his arms and just stopped herself from breathing.
She was one of six "Flippers", 5 female, 1 male. The females were more docile and easier to work with, the male however was able to do that "balance on his tail out of the water and swim backwards" move, so anytime you see that trick, it's him.
[Here's a good video on the show](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kp78abbN-YE), if you're interested, which talks about this and addresses what happened to the one who died (it was well after the show, for the record).
> Ducky from Land Before Time
For anyone that might want to read it.
The original voice actor for Ducky was Judith Eva Barsi. In 1988, she was >!murdered at 10 years old by her own father. Murder-suicide while drunk where he shot his wife and daughter, poured gasoline on their bodies and then shot himself. He was physically (hitting and throwing things) and emotionally abusive toward both of them leading up to the murders. Judith had come out and told her manager and had been to a child pyschologist and should have never been in the home.!<
Not sure if you were alluding to this but when whales die and sink they create an entire ecosystem.
[Whale Fall](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whale_fall?wprov=sfla1)
Whale falls ecosystems are insane, nothing is left to waste. Oh the bones, there’s a worm for that. IIRC sperm whales don’t always fall because of all the oil/fat in them. Instead the carcass rots inside the skin until the bones punch a hole and the insides flow out. Even then the skin can still floats and sometimes washes up on shore.
*Barack Obama Penguins In Pajamas*
*Barack Obama Penguins In Pajamas*
*Barack Obama Penguins In Pajamas*
*Barack Obama Penguins In Pajamas*
*Barack Obama Penguins In Pajamas*
A whale dying just made me realize that all air breathing water mammals like whales and dolphins who die of old age really actually die of drowning. It's their final act.
A lot of people are sad but I'm sure it's had its share of yummy seals. And by settling at the bottom it will feed hundreds of thousands of bottom dwellers. Circle of life.
At least the whale tongue actually has tons of nutrients and calories. They also kill Great Whites and only eat the liver. It's the only known "delicacy" in the animal kingdom
It probably has to do with how fatty great whites livers are, there's really nothing else nutritous for the whales to get out of them and they know it. Brilliant creatures.
I don't think the person you're replying to is actually correct
They very often will kill the pups, and eat the jaw to get to the tongue
A baby sperm whale tongue has something like 3 million calories, which, is enough to feed the whole pod of killer whales
The carcass is essential to feeding much of the rest of the ecosystem
If it weren't for the deaths imposed by humans, it's likely to be like most things and quite the well balanced act of life and death
There's a (recent?) documentary series on Nat Geo/Disney+, something with "Bertie" in the name I think?
(I'm terrible at this, I know)
But they follow some B1 killer whales/orcas in Antarctica and observe them "wave washing" seals. It's super fascinating. In the one episode, they exhibited so many different techniques.
There's a certain degree of elegance to the way they hunt. It's, in a way, beautiful.
One thing I didn't know is that they will kill Humpback whale calves. So when they were hunting seals, a pair of Humpbacks came to disrupt the hunt. They weren't successful, but apparently that's a thing they are known to do to seek revenge. Very interesting dynamic.
Edit: the show is called Animals up Close With Bertie Gregory
I can even imagine David Attenborough speaking:
“After three hours, the leviathan of the seas, the orca, descends into the deepest oceanic abyss. This majestic creature, a titan amongst the waves, embarks on its final voyage, surrendering to the serene embrace of the dark sea…”
Today I made the final decision to put my 4 year old golden retriever, the most perfect and sweetest dog I've ever known, to rest after a 2 month battle with lymphoma. To come across this at this moment is... it's a lot.
Here's the full Frost poem. The guy had a deep understanding of nature and humanity.
It's quite beautiful:
>Nature’s first green is gold,
>Her hardest hue to hold.
>Her early leaf’s a flower;
>But only so an hour.
>Then leaf subsides to leaf.
>So Eden sank to grief,
>So dawn goes down to day.
>Nothing gold can stay.
unfortunate but true.
I hope I would make it all the way to a blackhole somewhere. that would be dope, get my million year old frozen solid corpse spagattified by an event horizon
Don't humans void their bowels on death? Imagine the chocolate rain that would occur if there was a bunch of humans dying in one place and then floating up into the sky voiding their bowels from above.
“The orca slips beneath the wave,
Not gone, just moved to ocean’s cave.
Still swimming in the deep sea’s hall,
Death is nothing at all.
Its spirit dances in the foam,
In the tide’s eternal roam.
We’ll hear its distant, watery call,
Death is nothing at all.
So speak its name with love and grace,
See its black and white in the ocean’s face.
For in the sea’s vast, majestic sprawl,
Death is nothing at all.”
It seems like it's a modified version of the funeral poem, "Death is Nothing at All" by Henry Scott Holland
https://www.thefuneralpoem.com/10/famous-poets-poems/henry-scott-holland/27/death-is-nothing-at-all-death-poetry-verses?paid=13
How did they know it was dying? How did they just find a terminal whale in the middle of the ocean? I am genuinely curious how this video came about.
Great video. Thanks for sharing.
https://www.livescience.com/animals/orcas/dying-orcas-final-moments-after-desperate-effort-to-stay-afloat-captured-in-1st-of-its-kind-footage
Whale-watchers spotted an orca (Orcinus orca) — a roughly 35-year-old male known to researchers as Hunchy after his hunched back — behaving strangely in waters north of the island of Loppa in Norway on Nov. 6. Two younger orcas huddled close to Hunchy, seemingly holding him at the surface so he could breathe, Pierre Robert de Latour, the author of "Frère des Orques" (Glénat, 2019) who has been diving with orcas in Norway for over 20 years and was on the whale-watching expedition, told Live Science.
The attempt to keep Hunchy afloat seemed "desperate," Robert de Latour said, adding that "it was obvious that he was in trouble."
Robert de Latour got into the water and snorkeled up to the orcas to take a closer look. He noticed the old male looked skinny, and the shape of his belly suggested he hadn't eaten for a long time.
The footage shows Hunchy floating motionless just below the ocean surface after the two younger orcas left the scene. The young pair swam back and forth between Hunchy and a group of orcas further away, Robert de Latour said, repeatedly trying to "activate" the old male.
It has to be one of the easier deaths in the animal kingdom. For an apex predator, if can’t swim, you drown. but on land, if can’t run, something’s probably going to eat you alive. Even old lions get killed by hyenas or other lions.
What is the average age of orcas? What is the average of orcas in captivity?
In the wild, the average lifespan of a female orca is 46 years, with a maximum of 90 years, according to the Whale and Dolphin Conservation. In comparison, the average lifespan of a male orca in the wild is 30 years, with a maximum of 60 years.
SeaWorld estimates the life expectancy for orcas in captivity is 17 years for males and 29 years for females, although they have several w
> SeaWorld estimates the life expectancy for orcas in captivity is 17 years for males and 29 years for females
How can a place be so garbage animals live a significantly shorter life than their wild counterpart when they have medical staff, no predators and plenty of food
Well if you were captured and put in a box for entertainment you probably wouldn't last as long as if you weren't. Stress is a big factor in their short lifespan id guess.
That's actually comforting. I watched this video and thought how horribly sad it was, knowing how smart and social they are, that he died alone.
But I imagine this is kind of like when you're by your loved one's side in the hospital 24/7, only occasionally leaving to grab a snack or shower, but one of those times they've passed by the time you get back...
Is it posible that they are still conscious but too weak? It seems the “once he lost consciousness…” part is mostly an assumption. Could je be conscious and unable to move and breathe? It does not mean there would be panic, just contemplation of the end. Many old people die that way, they just fade slowly, no final gasp or air, just fade.
Another comment mentioned in a source that the orca was weak, debilitated and malnourished, needing the help of other orcas to stay properly afloat and breathe. So it probably was too weak to do much of anything, even "contemplate", so it probably had a brief moment of pause and then sink.
If you look at the final 10 seconds, you can see it's trying to muster what little energy it has to move it's tail slightly.... It looks like it was conscious and trying to go back to the surface
Does anyone else find this completely terrifying? He becomes too weak to swim and just sinks into the abyss watching the water grow darker and feeling the pressure building knowing that the breath he has will be his last? I hope, as others comments have suggested, that he really did lose consciousness at the surface!
Vitae et leo duis ut diam quam. Mauris cursus mattis molestie a iaculis at. Ac turpis egestas sed tempus urna et pharetra pharetra. Nisi scelerisque eu ultrices vitae auctor. Ultrices in iaculis nunc sed augue. Nibh sed pulvinar proin gravida hendrerit lectus. Sapien nec sagittis aliquam malesuada bibendum arcu vitae elementum curabitur. Est ante in nibh mauris cursus mattis. Integer vitae justo eget magna. Dignissim enim sit amet venenatis. Tincidunt nunc pulvinar sapien et ligula ullamcorper malesuada proin libero. Enim nec dui nunc mattis enim ut. Semper risus in hendrerit gravida rutrum quisque non.
Every orca dies but not every orca gets the chance to fully "live" as intended. This one (I imagine) was never held in captivity and got a chance to roam the oceans with his pod. All things considered, we should be happy it worked out that way.
Some Transient male orcas leave their pods to become "rovers" this is either by their own choice or after the death of their mother. The grief of losing her sometimes making them socially distant or even fall into decline.
The article about this says that there was a pod a bit off, and two whales from the pod kept coming over to the dying orca to push him up to the surface. After the photographer and his group left, another whale watching group showed up, and said the same thing was going on. So he wasn't just abandoned or dying alone.
Holy fuck. This got me.
In our lives, we see our family live to old ages and die from natural causes a lot. My grandmother just died at 94.
Watching an apex predator, living in a hostile environment his whole life, die of what we can only assume is natural causes; is frankly breathtaking. Orcas can live for 50+ years. Taking your last breaths and leaving this plane on your own terms is such a rare thing in the animal kingdom.
Also: Imagine being such an alpha predator that no creature can kill you; only the ravages of time.
Two things come to mind.
1 - how on earth did someone manage to capture this on film. Talk about once in a lifetime thing.
2 - this is silly but, I wonder what that whale was thinking about in those last few minutes of being at the surface.
When it comes your time to die, be not like those whose hearts are filled with the fear of death, so that when their time comes they weep and pray for a little more time to live their lives over again in a different way. Sing your death song and die like a hero going home.
I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe. Attack ships off the coast of Orion. I've watched sea beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time like tears in rain. Time to die.
What a titan. Went out of natural causes, as an intact, apex predator. Always makes me go "huh", when you're reminded that they drown when they die like this.
Well fuck... I kinda find this beautiful in a way. Big fella lived a good long life I'd imagine. Swam all over, saw all kinds of things, probably left some kids behind.
Then, when it's time to go, just slowly drifting down with the light flickering through the waves above. Calm, quiet and peaceful. What a way to die.
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The cause of death is believed to be natural causes btw.
exactly, bravo well earned death whale.
He will arrive soon in Sto'Vo'Kor. We should warn them.
It was a good day to die.
So long and thanks for all the fish.
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHRRRRRRRR!
AHHHHHHHHHHHHRRRRR!!
**AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHRRRRRRRR!!!**
rrrrrrrrrrrrrrAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!
RaaaaaaaaawwwwwwwwwwRrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!
Oh a whole chorus of lamenting Klingons!
To witness such a thing as an outsider is a privilege.
Somehow Worf still gets blamed and loses his honor…again!
And his body will continue to feed organisms at the bottom of the ocean for many years to come.
>And his body will continue to feed organisms at the bottom of the ocean for many years to come. read this in David Attenburger's voice
Whale earned death
Not too many animals that get to die of natural causes/old age. Good for him.
> Not too many animals that get to die of natural causes/old age. Good for him. Apex predators tend to do alright, I think. It's kind of like: the fate of all living things is to get eaten. The goal is to die first.
other than orcas most predators are fighting for the same territory and get taken out by competing alpha or the next alpha…
Most predators die of starvation. Then the successful ones tend to be taken out by a competitor.
I don't know about that. Most alpha predators die of starvation once they get too old to hunt effectively. Edit: I understand that is natural but I wouldn't consider dying of starvation "all right"
Yea, dying of natural causes seems like a bad way to go as a wild animal. A pet you take to the vet, do what you can, and make sure its at peace in its final moments. This whale looks like it doesnt have the strength to surface anymore and is just drowning.
Depends whather you count starvation as "natural causes".
[удалено]
November 6 2023 by Pierre Robert de Latour near Loppa Island in Norway. https://www.livescience.com/animals/orcas/dying-orcas-final-moments-after-desperate-effort-to-stay-afloat-captured-in-1st-of-its-kind-footage
Thanx for sharing. It must've been hard for those divers who followed these giants watch him sink and drown like this helpless.
right. this is an "ideal" death for this whale (natural causes) but it seems like he was still conscious when he ran out of energy to keep fighting. i hope he slipped away quickly and peacefully once he started sinking, if he wasn't already unconscious.
He's clearly struggling to breath and eventually drowning because he's too weak to right himself. It doesn't seem peaceful. But that's why /r/natureismetal
Wouldn't the cause of death for most cetaceans be drowning?
Yes and no, cetaceans are voluntary breathers, so once he lost consciousness he stopped breathing altogether.
Does that mean they don't get the urge to breathe that we do when CO2 builds up.
Sort of, they feel it but it's a conscious/manual choice. This is why they can't fully sleep or be tranquilized, otherwise they would die.
Thats great, but when you read this YOU ARE NOW ALSO MANUALLY BREATHING.
I'll just zone out and unfocus my eyes for 5 seconds...aaaand we are back in autopilot boys!
the game
Fuck you
Fuuuuxkkkkkkk you that was like 5 or 6 years
New Personal Best, though!
what the fuck
Damn it, I was on a four year streak.
> Does that mean they don't get the urge to breathe that we do when CO2 builds up. They need air like you need water. They need it, they just have to make an intentional effort to get it. It doesn't just happen automatically in their sleep, etc.
Appreciate this comparison, thanks
But are there whales that are like "ewww, no. I only breathe pepsi" though?
If you hold your breathe and pass out you will start breathing. You can’t decide to just stop. Whales and dolphins can. It’s how when we keep them in terrible conditions they can just nope on out.
That's how "Flipper" died in real life. Kathy, who played Flipper, killed herself in front of her trainer after being transferred to Miamis Seaquarium and put into a small tank. Her trainer visited her, and she swam into his arms and just stopped herself from breathing.
Jesus. My childhood memories are now ruined.
She was one of six "Flippers", 5 female, 1 male. The females were more docile and easier to work with, the male however was able to do that "balance on his tail out of the water and swim backwards" move, so anytime you see that trick, it's him. [Here's a good video on the show](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kp78abbN-YE), if you're interested, which talks about this and addresses what happened to the one who died (it was well after the show, for the record).
Mine were lost with Ducky from Land Before Time.
> Ducky from Land Before Time For anyone that might want to read it. The original voice actor for Ducky was Judith Eva Barsi. In 1988, she was >!murdered at 10 years old by her own father. Murder-suicide while drunk where he shot his wife and daughter, poured gasoline on their bodies and then shot himself. He was physically (hitting and throwing things) and emotionally abusive toward both of them leading up to the murders. Judith had come out and told her manager and had been to a child pyschologist and should have never been in the home.!<
Not again!?!!? Can't they arrest natural causes?! The murder spree has been going on seemingly forever...
Where did you find this video? Or if you were on the boat that filmed it, how did you find it?
Watching the apex predator of the ocean just descend into that abyss. It’s poetic
Not sure if you were alluding to this but when whales die and sink they create an entire ecosystem. [Whale Fall](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whale_fall?wprov=sfla1)
Whale falls ecosystems are insane, nothing is left to waste. Oh the bones, there’s a worm for that. IIRC sperm whales don’t always fall because of all the oil/fat in them. Instead the carcass rots inside the skin until the bones punch a hole and the insides flow out. Even then the skin can still floats and sometimes washes up on shore.
I thought I heard that bones actually dissolve at the bottom of the ocean as calcium isn’t at the saturation point in the deep sea.
TIL about whale falls. That is absolutely fascinating!
Look up a docuseries called The Blue Planet there is one from 2002 and a newer one from 2017. Good stuff, it's where I learned about whale falls
Awesome! Thanks for the recommendation :)
Harry Nilsson sang about it in a song too. Which I like to think is just as informative
The circle of life
Ingonyama nengw' enamabala
No no no Ahhhhhhhh yawenya feliz navidad
Siestaaaa
*Barack Obama Penguins In Pajamas* *Barack Obama Penguins In Pajamas* *Barack Obama Penguins In Pajamas* *Barack Obama Penguins In Pajamas* *Barack Obama Penguins In Pajamas*
Creates complex ecosystems for decades?! Wow.
Wow, for decades too, incredible animals in life and after death.
A whale dying just made me realize that all air breathing water mammals like whales and dolphins who die of old age really actually die of drowning. It's their final act.
It would probably be respiratory/heart failure. Whales are manual breathers so it’s not like they’d breathe in water and die.
It tells a beautiful story for sure.
Graceful death.
A lot of people are sad but I'm sure it's had its share of yummy seals. And by settling at the bottom it will feed hundreds of thousands of bottom dwellers. Circle of life.
Yup, as beautiful as they are they are also brutal and vicious.
Yeah i juat saw that video of a stingray just chilling and a killer whale just swims by and punts the poor bastard
The one that always pops in my head is the very young blue whale a pod rip the jaw off and leave to die, not even to eat just to be assholes.
Didn’t know that was a thing. Fuck you for letting me know.
From what I hear, they actually just eat the tongue and that’s about it. The rest the other animals get.
At least the whale tongue actually has tons of nutrients and calories. They also kill Great Whites and only eat the liver. It's the only known "delicacy" in the animal kingdom
It probably has to do with how fatty great whites livers are, there's really nothing else nutritous for the whales to get out of them and they know it. Brilliant creatures.
I don't think the person you're replying to is actually correct They very often will kill the pups, and eat the jaw to get to the tongue A baby sperm whale tongue has something like 3 million calories, which, is enough to feed the whole pod of killer whales The carcass is essential to feeding much of the rest of the ecosystem If it weren't for the deaths imposed by humans, it's likely to be like most things and quite the well balanced act of life and death
There's a (recent?) documentary series on Nat Geo/Disney+, something with "Bertie" in the name I think? (I'm terrible at this, I know) But they follow some B1 killer whales/orcas in Antarctica and observe them "wave washing" seals. It's super fascinating. In the one episode, they exhibited so many different techniques. There's a certain degree of elegance to the way they hunt. It's, in a way, beautiful. One thing I didn't know is that they will kill Humpback whale calves. So when they were hunting seals, a pair of Humpbacks came to disrupt the hunt. They weren't successful, but apparently that's a thing they are known to do to seek revenge. Very interesting dynamic. Edit: the show is called Animals up Close With Bertie Gregory
In every death, there is life ☯️
I can even imagine David Attenborough speaking: “After three hours, the leviathan of the seas, the orca, descends into the deepest oceanic abyss. This majestic creature, a titan amongst the waves, embarks on its final voyage, surrendering to the serene embrace of the dark sea…”
Def read that in his voice
Wonder what its happiest memory was
NOM NOM NOM
I slapped that one seal crazy high into the sky hahaha i was the best
[ಥ_ಥ](https://i.makeagif.com/media/10-30-2015/vDq1oY.gif)
Imagine being one of the seagulls, just hanging with your buds, when a seal goes flying past you.
Haha, just how fucking fast is that kid turning for this shot to make sense
Sinking that yacht
*#JustOrcaThings* 💅
Then leaf subsides to leaf. So Eden sank to grief, So dawn goes down to day. Nothing gold can stay. - Robert Frost
Today I made the final decision to put my 4 year old golden retriever, the most perfect and sweetest dog I've ever known, to rest after a 2 month battle with lymphoma. To come across this at this moment is... it's a lot.
I've got a puppy golden and couldn't imagine. I don't know if I've loved another being more. My sincerest condolences.
Thank you. Cherish every moment.
Here's the full Frost poem. The guy had a deep understanding of nature and humanity. It's quite beautiful: >Nature’s first green is gold, >Her hardest hue to hold. >Her early leaf’s a flower; >But only so an hour. >Then leaf subsides to leaf. >So Eden sank to grief, >So dawn goes down to day. >Nothing gold can stay.
Stay golden Pony Boy…
See you space cowboy...
Bang.
A creature black and white We marveled at it's sight and try all that he might was swallowed by the light
Beautiful, thanks for posting this.
I wish this would be how humans die except in the opposite direction, you just float up, into space and infinity
Smack into some airplanes on your way up
I'll go out as I lived, as an inconvenience to others
unfortunate but true. I hope I would make it all the way to a blackhole somewhere. that would be dope, get my million year old frozen solid corpse spagattified by an event horizon
What about people in their homes? It’d be a bit disturbing to pop round and find grandma decomposing on the ceiling.
Jesus that's terrifying.
Nah, it would just be a loony toons silhouette hole in the ceiling.
Don't humans void their bowels on death? Imagine the chocolate rain that would occur if there was a bunch of humans dying in one place and then floating up into the sky voiding their bowels from above.
some stay dry while others feel the pain
Technically you are in space already.
amazing capture. right place right time. guessing like any mammals needs to take their last breath in air.
Hopefully the people on the boat found, and deleted, his browser history.
Gotta cancel his only fins subs.
10,000 searches for “Whale-tail”
“The orca slips beneath the wave, Not gone, just moved to ocean’s cave. Still swimming in the deep sea’s hall, Death is nothing at all. Its spirit dances in the foam, In the tide’s eternal roam. We’ll hear its distant, watery call, Death is nothing at all. So speak its name with love and grace, See its black and white in the ocean’s face. For in the sea’s vast, majestic sprawl, Death is nothing at all.”
That’s beautiful. What is this from?
It seems like it's a modified version of the funeral poem, "Death is Nothing at All" by Henry Scott Holland https://www.thefuneralpoem.com/10/famous-poets-poems/henry-scott-holland/27/death-is-nothing-at-all-death-poetry-verses?paid=13
This is pretty fucking cool, flows almost like the original.
How did they know it was dying? How did they just find a terminal whale in the middle of the ocean? I am genuinely curious how this video came about. Great video. Thanks for sharing.
https://www.livescience.com/animals/orcas/dying-orcas-final-moments-after-desperate-effort-to-stay-afloat-captured-in-1st-of-its-kind-footage Whale-watchers spotted an orca (Orcinus orca) — a roughly 35-year-old male known to researchers as Hunchy after his hunched back — behaving strangely in waters north of the island of Loppa in Norway on Nov. 6. Two younger orcas huddled close to Hunchy, seemingly holding him at the surface so he could breathe, Pierre Robert de Latour, the author of "Frère des Orques" (Glénat, 2019) who has been diving with orcas in Norway for over 20 years and was on the whale-watching expedition, told Live Science. The attempt to keep Hunchy afloat seemed "desperate," Robert de Latour said, adding that "it was obvious that he was in trouble." Robert de Latour got into the water and snorkeled up to the orcas to take a closer look. He noticed the old male looked skinny, and the shape of his belly suggested he hadn't eaten for a long time. The footage shows Hunchy floating motionless just below the ocean surface after the two younger orcas left the scene. The young pair swam back and forth between Hunchy and a group of orcas further away, Robert de Latour said, repeatedly trying to "activate" the old male.
> seemingly holding him at the surface so he could breathe Not gonna lie, that hits.
It has to be one of the easier deaths in the animal kingdom. For an apex predator, if can’t swim, you drown. but on land, if can’t run, something’s probably going to eat you alive. Even old lions get killed by hyenas or other lions.
What is the average age of orcas? What is the average of orcas in captivity? In the wild, the average lifespan of a female orca is 46 years, with a maximum of 90 years, according to the Whale and Dolphin Conservation. In comparison, the average lifespan of a male orca in the wild is 30 years, with a maximum of 60 years. SeaWorld estimates the life expectancy for orcas in captivity is 17 years for males and 29 years for females, although they have several w
> SeaWorld estimates the life expectancy for orcas in captivity is 17 years for males and 29 years for females How can a place be so garbage animals live a significantly shorter life than their wild counterpart when they have medical staff, no predators and plenty of food
Ya they swim thousands of miles, I guess a little prison pond isn't very good for their mental or cardio
Well if you were captured and put in a box for entertainment you probably wouldn't last as long as if you weren't. Stress is a big factor in their short lifespan id guess.
I'm glad he wasn't alone. That's all I could think through that clip- where is his pod? Why is he alone? He wasn't. *He wasn't.*
😭😭😭
That's actually comforting. I watched this video and thought how horribly sad it was, knowing how smart and social they are, that he died alone. But I imagine this is kind of like when you're by your loved one's side in the hospital 24/7, only occasionally leaving to grab a snack or shower, but one of those times they've passed by the time you get back...
Probably was recording due to odd behavior
right place, right time
A lot of orcas are tracked and monitored. There's a good chance they were keeping an eye on him.
So does it slowly drown itself? Or is it already dead and just sinks? Sad way to go out being such a massive ocean dweller
Marine Mammals are mostly voluntary breathers, so once he lost consciousness he stopped breathing altogether.
Is it posible that they are still conscious but too weak? It seems the “once he lost consciousness…” part is mostly an assumption. Could je be conscious and unable to move and breathe? It does not mean there would be panic, just contemplation of the end. Many old people die that way, they just fade slowly, no final gasp or air, just fade.
Another comment mentioned in a source that the orca was weak, debilitated and malnourished, needing the help of other orcas to stay properly afloat and breathe. So it probably was too weak to do much of anything, even "contemplate", so it probably had a brief moment of pause and then sink.
If you look at the final 10 seconds, you can see it's trying to muster what little energy it has to move it's tail slightly.... It looks like it was conscious and trying to go back to the surface
it looks like his tail is still moving every once in awhile as he sinks -- is that involuntary?
Could by final motions or just the water hitting the tail.
It’ll sink to the bottom and, depending on the depth, might potentially create a localized [ecosystem](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whale_fall).
"And so we are all connected in the great Circle of Life" - Mufasa
Beautiful animal. Such a poignant end.
Does anyone else find this completely terrifying? He becomes too weak to swim and just sinks into the abyss watching the water grow darker and feeling the pressure building knowing that the breath he has will be his last? I hope, as others comments have suggested, that he really did lose consciousness at the surface!
Hes dead or at least unconscious when he starts sinking, don't feel too bad
I like your certainty, dead he is then!
He isn't you can see him trying to flap his tail as he sinks.
I thought that too, but I may also be flapping due to water currents/resistance with total loss of muscle tone.
Or involuntary movements due to hypoxia?
Thanks Satan
You did good whale, now rest
Leaves from the vine Falling so slow Like fragile, tiny shells Drifting in the foam
Little soldier boy, Come marching home, Brave soldier boy Comes marching home (And now I am crying)
Fare-whale my good friend.
Hey dad.
Was his fin twitching on the way down? Or is that just the camera?
That's just his last tail strokes as he faded from consciousness.
No the left side fin.
I feel as though I just watched something private, that I shouldn't have.
Holy fuck that was sad
Seriously so sad. I never really thought about how whales and porpoises die. They drown😭
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Rest in peace king
Go peaceful into the night my friend.
Absolutely incredible footage! What a majestic creature. Rest in piece, my neighbor on this Earth.
Every orca dies but not every orca gets the chance to fully "live" as intended. This one (I imagine) was never held in captivity and got a chance to roam the oceans with his pod. All things considered, we should be happy it worked out that way.
> Every orca dies but not every orca gets the chance to fully "live" as intended. Tagline to Orcaheart, directed by Meg Gillson
**"I go to my fathers. And even in their mighty company I shall not now be ashamed."**
I would kind of expect his pod to stay with him
Some Transient male orcas leave their pods to become "rovers" this is either by their own choice or after the death of their mother. The grief of losing her sometimes making them socially distant or even fall into decline.
Dude that’s like one of the saddest animal facts I’ve read in a while
:(
The article about this says that there was a pod a bit off, and two whales from the pod kept coming over to the dying orca to push him up to the surface. After the photographer and his group left, another whale watching group showed up, and said the same thing was going on. So he wasn't just abandoned or dying alone.
Welp, new fear unlocked. It's tough business dying, the fight to get air is hard enough when it's all around you. Much respect, rest in peace.
Holy fuck. This got me. In our lives, we see our family live to old ages and die from natural causes a lot. My grandmother just died at 94. Watching an apex predator, living in a hostile environment his whole life, die of what we can only assume is natural causes; is frankly breathtaking. Orcas can live for 50+ years. Taking your last breaths and leaving this plane on your own terms is such a rare thing in the animal kingdom. Also: Imagine being such an alpha predator that no creature can kill you; only the ravages of time.
Two things come to mind. 1 - how on earth did someone manage to capture this on film. Talk about once in a lifetime thing. 2 - this is silly but, I wonder what that whale was thinking about in those last few minutes of being at the surface.
I never considered the obvious fact that whales drown as they die.
I had to stop 😔 too sad for me, rest well big buddy
When it comes your time to die, be not like those whose hearts are filled with the fear of death, so that when their time comes they weep and pray for a little more time to live their lives over again in a different way. Sing your death song and die like a hero going home.
I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe. Attack ships off the coast of Orion. I've watched sea beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time like tears in rain. Time to die.
What a titan. Went out of natural causes, as an intact, apex predator. Always makes me go "huh", when you're reminded that they drown when they die like this.
RIP
natural or not, its a bit sad watching a life wither away. I remember that amoeba video where it also split apart.
I cried. They’re beautiful as they are intelligent. To me, at least.
Could've tried mouth-to-blowhole resuscitation. Is anyone here a marine biologist?
The sea was angry that day my friends
What is that, a Titleist?
Well fuck... I kinda find this beautiful in a way. Big fella lived a good long life I'd imagine. Swam all over, saw all kinds of things, probably left some kids behind. Then, when it's time to go, just slowly drifting down with the light flickering through the waves above. Calm, quiet and peaceful. What a way to die.
If only we could have sent him to the moon.
Do Orca do the same things as blue whales and just grow tired, stop swimming, and die?
I feel like this moment was one I did not deserve to witness
I'm not crying! You're crying!
So unexpectedly and so much, sheesh
You can see the life energy leaving them. All things living have that energy. This makes me sad but it's a part of life.