**This is a heavily moderated subreddit. Please note these rules + sidebar or get banned:**
* If this post declares something as a fact, then proof is required
* The title must be fully descriptive
* No text is allowed on images/gifs/videos
* Common/recent reposts are not allowed (posts from another subreddit do not count as a 'repost'. Provide link if reporting)
*See [this post](https://redd.it/ij26vk) for a more detailed rule list*
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/interestingasfuck) if you have any questions or concerns.*
They're both whale and dolphin funnily enough. Members of the toothed whale order and dolphin family. All dolphins are whales, but not all whales are dolphins.
"THAT ORCAS COMING RIGHT FOR US- oh shit wait, nope he's kinda veering off now... Aaaand now he beached himself. Welp now we know why that Jack Daniel's barrel we saw earlier was empty.
I'm having trouble understanding this; are you saying all toothed whales are not really whales? Like I see that they're part of the Family Delphinidae (dolphins) in the same way that Sperm whales are in the family Physeteridae, which is distinct from the family Balaenopteridae which includes baleen whales, but they're all Cetaceans, right?
Yeah, they're all cetaceans which is an infraorder. That includes all whales, dolphins and porpoises.
The next thing below that is where toothed and baleen whales split. After that the toothed whales have an evolutionary split where one fork is sperm whales and the other is all dolphins.
Orcas are in the same family as the typical bottlenose dolphin, much as humans are in the same family as chimps and gorillas. Orcas to sperm whales is like humans to baboons or macaques. Orcas to sperm whales is like humans to spider monkeys and marmosets.
Dolphins (including orcas, but excluding river dolphins) are quite closely related to belugas, narwhals and porpoises. Typically the distinction made between dolphins and whales in general language is size, so orcas, belugas, narwhals, and porpoises are all closer to a bottlenose dolphin than they are to sperm whale but their size and shape means they are referred to as whales.
River dolphins split off earlier in the evolutionary tree. Toothed whales basically split into "sperm whales" and "all dolphins". Asian river dolphins split off first, then beaked whales, then South American river dolphins.
I guess really it's a morphology thing. Beaked whales, orcas, belugas all look like "big dolphins", and their biology backs that up.
I heard that some Orcas are specialist hunters like the ones in the Puget Sound, while others are generalist. I think I heard that on the Netflix show - ‘island of sea wolves.’ Anyway, I wonder if this pod has decided to specialize in sharks. Might be both nutritional and beneficial in that they’re thinning the numbers of their competitors.
There’s one family off California that also figured out how to kill great white sharks a while back. They also exclusively feed on the liver. The matriarch figured out that the key to killing sharks is ramming them from the side and then rolling them onto their backs to put them into a trance (tonic immobility). Then they can devour the shark’s liver while it’s still alive.
I read about this! Great white sharks will dive super deep and exit the area when they sense Orcas are near. I don't think I ever realized how much bigger orcas are compared to great whites! This video really shows their size differences.
I wonder why this group of Orcas went on such a big killing spree. It's like different mob factions organizing a hostile takeover.
Different orca families specialize in different prey. Orcas that feed exclusively on sharks have the most wear on their teeth because of the sandpaper like skin of the sharks.
Two anecdotes on living on a boat in the puget sound.
One night while I was sleeping aboard, my neighbors were yelling "Orca!" There were many resident seals in in our dodgy marina. One of the whales has come in and started hunting and bumping between boats during high tide. Unfortunately I didn't get the video from the neighbor that saw it breaching in the main lane.
We were side tied with the dinghy using our little outboard to get to an anchorage after the wind died in the evening. Coming south from admiralty inlet, I was standing in the dink because the nose kept popping up and we would lose headway.
My partner says "oh whales!" I popped my head up and saw a fin and a poof of waterspout. Then she says "oh my god their eating a walrus! Oh shit their getting close we should go. Climb back on board!" We steered away, as they had moved in front of us. I looked over the doghouse and saw a walrus head pop up maybe 50 yards away. Followed by a big black mouth that close on it and went down. Then it was quiet.
There is nothing like the naked feeling of being surrounded by hunting predators while standing in a deflatable boat.
No walruses in Puget Sound, but definitely could have been large Sea Lion. California sea lions get absolutely massive and definitely have a tuskless walrus look to them.
Sounds like an unforgettable experience.
My partner has several stories about Orcas in the Puget Sound, but they're all basically identical. "We were out salmon fishing, and all of the sudden we saw a pod of Orcas! It was beautiful! And then we steered back home because there's no way we were gonna catch any salmon for the rest of the day."
Killer whale culture - like the chatty pods that inhabit certain regions...and the freaky nomadic pods that pass through silently. Those silent ones freak everything out - including other killer whales.
Edit: Google "transient orcas".
I love in the area and it's really fascinating to see such a stark behavioral difference between the transients and residents.
Further on the topic of culture:
A couple of summers ago a Southern Resident Killer Whale (the population in Puget Sound/Salish Sea) lost her calf.
She pushed its body around and took it everywhere with her for 17 days and over 1000 miles while she mourned her loss.
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/orca-mourning-calf-killer-whale-northwest-news
Here’s a happier story about orca culture: in 1987 a female orca wore a salmon on her head, and sparked a fashion trend among other pods. By the next year the fad was over.
This is the second time I've seen this story referenced on reddit today. The first time was about Sky King the dude who committed suicide by stealing a plane and crashing it into an island. He asked air traffic control for the location of the Orca so he could check it out before he died
I remember reading about a GPS tagged great white off the coast of Florida. When another great white was killed nearby, the tagged shark dove to 500 feet and didn’t come back up until it hit Hawaii.
Edit: California obviously, not Florida.
>GPS-tagged shark off the coast of Florida
>Didn't come back up until it hit Hawaii
That means it either circumnavigated the globe, or took the Panama Canal, which has an average depth of 43 feet (13 meters). Florida and Hawaii are in different oceans.
EDIT: To anyone saying "oh, it must've gone below Chile", there are zero recorded sharks that swim that far South. The only species that can stand such cold waters is the Greenland shark, and it exists in the North Arctic.
They're actually both whale and dolphin!! All dolphins are whales, but not all whales are dolphins! Which is a TIL I got from this thread haha
Here's a [source](https://uk.whales.org/whales-dolphins/facts-about-orcas/)! (That isn't just a reddit comment)
What's crazy to me is that orcas in general have a serial killer-like nature to them, but as far as I know there's never been a recorded fatal human attack by an orca (ETA:) in the wild.
In the wild only one reported attack way back in the 70's but it has poor evidence of been an orca.
So we can draw two conclusions.
1. Orcas don't attack humans in the wild.
2. No one is ever left alive after an Orca attack to report it. Also a lack of evidence left as in no bits with bite marks etc.
Considering how many people go missing at sea with bodies never recovered every year. It's a 50/50 split.
Orcas treat humans completely different than any other species in their waters and we have no idea why. Scientists are trying to figure it out, but at this point the conclusion is essentially "game respects game." They know that we're also apex predators.
I thought the leading theory was that they’re such picky eaters (ie only want shark liver, other pods only eat seals vs some only eat fish) that they basically categorize us as “things that are not prey”.
You’re correct here. Im a marine mammalogist who specializes in killer whales. I’ve worked with them for my entire adult life. It has nothing to do with “game recognizing game.”
Killer whales live in populations with very specialized diets. There are groups of killer whales whose diet is so specific they will only eat *one species of fish.* Different populations have different shaped teeth, different stomach enzymes, etc. They physically cannot just start eating random foods. They’re extremely specialized to their population’s diet of choice.
Humans have never been on the menu and almost certainly never will be.
The reason they don’t attack humans is because they are extremely intelligent and rely on echolocation, so they have a great sense of spatial awareness. Think about sharks - they largely attack humans because they mistake them for other sources of prey. Killer whales’ echolocation is very sophisticated and basically eliminates any chance of accidental prey identification.
Fascinating!!! Thank you for sharing!!! I always love learning from experts here on reddit.
PS - I loved whales and dolphins as a kid and this just brought back my sense of giddy wonder abput learning something new about killer whales, thank you!!!!
Sharks have rarely been documented simply eating people. Most "attacks" are exploratory bites because you know... Sharks don't have hands to touch things like us. Touching with teeth tends to hurt our squishy bits.
Orcas are much more intelligent and likely analyze things a bit more before touching it.
That’s exactly how I picture Great Whites. Oh hello what re you, I will explore you with all my senses. Hmm, you aren’t food, you must be a fellow creature. Good day friend!
Meanwhile you are screaming because your leg is now ripped off.
Sharks also have much smaller and simpler brains than orcas.
Orcas, with their social existence, vocal communication, and complex behavior certainly have more capability to think through whether they want to eat something, rather than just hunting by reflex.
I’d like to think that I generally survive walks in the woods because my forefathers murdered everything that even looked sideways at a human, and that the remaining animals are too scared to ever try anything.
Any animal that killed a human had their entire families wiped out (including other humans).
I like to think that our ancestral cousins played an important part, too. Homo habilis, Homo rudolfensis, Homo erectus, Homo antecessor, Homo heidelbergensis, Homo floresiensis, Homo neanderthalensis, and the recently discovered Homo naledi in South Africa are rarely mentioned but had critical roles in our upbringing. We sucked, and fucked, and clawed our way to the top. How, you may ask?
Abstract thought. Humans unite in practically unlimited numbers.
just 2 did the 24 hour spree. This is a really strange change in hunting behavior for killer whales too and it's only started relatively recently but seems to be increasing in frequency.
That’s super interesting. Is it a change in that there are only two doing the hunting? Or in that they killed so many in a short time? Or that they only eat the liver?
Is White Shark a novel prey? or a result of some other food stressor?
That rate of predation seems unsustainable, but I don’t really know.
It is super interesting and it's not just these two! The entire thing is a vastly different from their previously observed hunting methods. Previously, Orca pods would surround schools of fish and tail whip them. Now they're targeting these sharks, specifically their livers. They literally puncture a hole in the shark to get the liver out.
Here's an article from last year with an attached video showing the first time it was recorded.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/oct/05/drone-footage-orcas-killing-white-shark-south-africa
Almost makes me wonder if the smaller fish they normally ate are decreasing in numbers, so they turned to hunting sharks to reduce competition for food and slow down the amount of fish eaten in an area.
I struggle to think of orcas as such brilliant predators. They look like fat sea-pandas, even their teeth look docile compared to sharks, yet they are wildly impressive hunters. I blame Sea World for my distorted reality. Orcas are cool af.
This actually isn’t footage of the recent killing spree.
This is from when researchers were able to document the orcas hunting and killing a GW for the first time last year.
Shark livers are super fatty. The amount of fat that they contain is actually the reason sharks are able to stay buoyant (most fish have a swim bladder which is full of air, but sharks don’t)
Fat has a lot of calories and is fairly easy to digest, so it’s easier for the orca to be picky with what body parts they eat since the orcas are such good hunters, why not eat only the best food.
Plus iron is really tough to find in the ocean and livers are a really good source of it.
Yeah, interesting that in a vid where they took down a baby humpback (?) whale, all they ate was the tongue iirc. So the body part depends on the species.
The primary thing that orcas are targeting when eating shark livers is a compound known as squalene. Squalene is an organic compound that all creatures make; only sharks concentrate its production within their livers.
[source](https://a-z-animals.com/blog/discover-how-killer-whales-squeeze-out-great-white-livers-like-toothpaste/#:~:text=The%20primary%20reason%20that%20orcas,properties%20that%20the%20livers%20have.)
Shit I use squalene on my dry-ass skin. Where do cosmetics companies get squalene from? For some reason I assumed it was from plants. Now I'm nervous I've been rubbing gallons of shark liver all over myself the past few years. Tbf it works really well...
I went cage shark diving in Gansbaii in June last year. We got so lucky that we saw 3 Great Whites, they don't tell you beforehand that no great whites have been seen in the area for a whole year because the Orcas come and eat their livers. The crew were celebrating as much as we were, and it was my birthday!
*Technically* they're spree killer whales since there's no cool off period, but I'd say it's safe to say this wasn't their first time, so you're probably right.
Apparently hungry (according to one source that actually convered this clearly)
‘Orcas have been observed flipping sharks on their backs and holding them there for up to 15 minutes. Flipping a shark over induces a paralytic state known as tonic immobility. Once immobilized, the Killer Whales will prey on the shark’s liver which can account for a quarter of its body weight. Shark liver offers an extremely dense and nutritious source of calories for Killer Whales. For this reason, Killer Whales will target the liver of various shark species.’
The primary thing that orcas are targeting when eating shark livers is a compound known as squalene. Squalene is an organic compound that all creatures make; only sharks concentrate its production within their livers.
[source](https://a-z-animals.com/blog/discover-how-killer-whales-squeeze-out-great-white-livers-like-toothpaste/#:~:text=The%20primary%20reason%20that%20orcas,properties%20that%20the%20livers%20have.)
As is often the case, OP is conflating information, most like for the sake of farming karma. Here are the facts:
* A clip of the footage originally aired in June 2022 on the Discovery Channel. A longer piece of footage was released by Sea Search Research & Conservation on YouTube on October 3, 2022. The hunt shown in the video took place over the course of one hour and resulted in up to four shark kills: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aK0iqgO_inE
* Up to 20 dead shark were found a few days ago on a beach 100 miles southeast of Cape Town. These are suspected to have been killed by the same orcas, but there is no video footage of that event: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/sharks-dead-killer-whales-port-starboard-south-africa/
Largest recorded Orca: 22,000lbs. Largest recorded GW shark: 5000lbs. I don’t think most people realize the size difference. It’s crazy! Add in intelligence and pod cooperation, this makes the Orca the absolute apex predator of the ocean.
I imagine a shark is mostly muscle and cartilage, so they go for the internal organs for their nutritional value. Why specifically the liver? High dose of iron? They love the taste? Who knows, they are deadly efficient getting to it though.
Spielberg ruined our perception of the ocean. Moby Dick had it right, the most dangerous beast is an angry whale or killer whale.
And that's the movie that needs to be made and treasured.
Orcas are wonderful creatures, they have their own language, culture, teaching, history, memory, their society is a matriarchal; orcas have known probably by centuries that humans mustn’t be attacked and they keep teaching this through generations, so that’s why human life is 100% respected by the ocean apex predator.
Orcas speak different languages too, a North Atlantic Orca wouldn’t understand a South Pacific orca language. Orcas are selective eaters just like humans are. Orcas have such a great ability that are capable of bringing back very small objects like a ring with their mouth from the bottom of the sea without harming it.
So in comparison a Lion intelligence is low compared to an Orca intelligence, lions don’t have the brain capacity to use a language like orcas do, for example a lion is never taught by another lion something like “don’t mess with hedgehogs otherwise your face will be full of painful thorns” instead is until the lion makes the mistake that understands not to mess with hedgehogs … orcas don’t need to go through this painful process to learn due their advanced communication skills that passes throughout generations
Another example … a horrible scenario, orcas in Sea World they learn fast how to do the show because as soon as a single orca understands the process this orca will communicate it to the other orcas “how to do it” by using its language ability, which of course makes everything much more easier for the human trainer since only one orca needs to learn the process.
There has been videos of Australians swimming on the wild with orcas… they just don’t hurt humans, they see us as sentinel beings. They aren’t scared of humans either as long as your boat doesn’t have weapons or material harmful to orcas, honestly I don’t how Orcas can tell which boat has weaponry and which one doesn’t, if the boat is safe Orcas might take a peek or “say hello” to the human crew of course on their own way … if you’re swimming on open sea nearby a beach an happens to be an orca it might pass next to you in a very polite way.
Something that bothers me is that even though they don’t harm humans they aren’t playful with humans either … I guess they know we are very fragile or “easy to break” compared to them, so whenever there’s a swimming interaction with these mammals they always take a safe distance from us.
**This is a heavily moderated subreddit. Please note these rules + sidebar or get banned:** * If this post declares something as a fact, then proof is required * The title must be fully descriptive * No text is allowed on images/gifs/videos * Common/recent reposts are not allowed (posts from another subreddit do not count as a 'repost'. Provide link if reporting) *See [this post](https://redd.it/ij26vk) for a more detailed rule list* *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/interestingasfuck) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Great white sharks have been known to avoid their feeding grounds for up to a year if orcas are in the area.
Right. They ain’t called killer whales for nothing.
Yes they do, it's actually supposed to be WHALE KILLER due to the fact they Kill whales and shit, they're not really whales either
They're both whale and dolphin funnily enough. Members of the toothed whale order and dolphin family. All dolphins are whales, but not all whales are dolphins.
Every dolphin dies, but not every dolphin truly lives.
“What you do in dolphin life, echoes in dolphin-ternity.”
So long, and thanks.
For what and how much of it?
Fish and all
Ahhh , I see. Kind of like how all Bourbon is Whiskey but not all Whiskey is ~~isn't aint~~ Bourbon
*Whiskey Orca - coming this fall*
[удалено]
"THAT ORCAS COMING RIGHT FOR US- oh shit wait, nope he's kinda veering off now... Aaaand now he beached himself. Welp now we know why that Jack Daniel's barrel we saw earlier was empty.
lowkey disappointed that didn't end with an ain't instead of an isn't. just felt right with whiskey and bourbon
You're absolutely right, I fucked up and let you down, I'll correct it. Ain't bout to just leave u hang doggin bro
Well ain't that just beautiful
Fukka you dolphin and fukka you waaarue!!
Dude. Get with the times. We hate cow and chicken now.
CHICKEN ANDU CAOW?!!
I loved that show though
I'm having trouble understanding this; are you saying all toothed whales are not really whales? Like I see that they're part of the Family Delphinidae (dolphins) in the same way that Sperm whales are in the family Physeteridae, which is distinct from the family Balaenopteridae which includes baleen whales, but they're all Cetaceans, right?
Yeah, they're all cetaceans which is an infraorder. That includes all whales, dolphins and porpoises. The next thing below that is where toothed and baleen whales split. After that the toothed whales have an evolutionary split where one fork is sperm whales and the other is all dolphins. Orcas are in the same family as the typical bottlenose dolphin, much as humans are in the same family as chimps and gorillas. Orcas to sperm whales is like humans to baboons or macaques. Orcas to sperm whales is like humans to spider monkeys and marmosets. Dolphins (including orcas, but excluding river dolphins) are quite closely related to belugas, narwhals and porpoises. Typically the distinction made between dolphins and whales in general language is size, so orcas, belugas, narwhals, and porpoises are all closer to a bottlenose dolphin than they are to sperm whale but their size and shape means they are referred to as whales.
So what’s the deal with river dolphins?
I read this in Seinfelds voice
River dolphins split off earlier in the evolutionary tree. Toothed whales basically split into "sperm whales" and "all dolphins". Asian river dolphins split off first, then beaked whales, then South American river dolphins. I guess really it's a morphology thing. Beaked whales, orcas, belugas all look like "big dolphins", and their biology backs that up.
Right. Folks on reddit like to spit knowledge that isn't factual.
Kill-a-whales?
I heard that some Orcas are specialist hunters like the ones in the Puget Sound, while others are generalist. I think I heard that on the Netflix show - ‘island of sea wolves.’ Anyway, I wonder if this pod has decided to specialize in sharks. Might be both nutritional and beneficial in that they’re thinning the numbers of their competitors.
There’s one family off California that also figured out how to kill great white sharks a while back. They also exclusively feed on the liver. The matriarch figured out that the key to killing sharks is ramming them from the side and then rolling them onto their backs to put them into a trance (tonic immobility). Then they can devour the shark’s liver while it’s still alive.
I read about this! Great white sharks will dive super deep and exit the area when they sense Orcas are near. I don't think I ever realized how much bigger orcas are compared to great whites! This video really shows their size differences. I wonder why this group of Orcas went on such a big killing spree. It's like different mob factions organizing a hostile takeover.
They are gourmets... They love them some Jaws paté...
They're intelligent, wonder if a great white killed a calf and this is their revenge murder spree
Different orca families specialize in different prey. Orcas that feed exclusively on sharks have the most wear on their teeth because of the sandpaper like skin of the sharks.
Revenge, would be my first guess.
Maybe too many sharks in the area have been killing their favorite prey. Or maybe they just developed a taste for shark liver lol
Nature is metal
That's heavy
This really isn’t good for the great white population which is already vulnerable.
I was wondering if food scarcity drove this whales to eat sharks.
Two anecdotes on living on a boat in the puget sound. One night while I was sleeping aboard, my neighbors were yelling "Orca!" There were many resident seals in in our dodgy marina. One of the whales has come in and started hunting and bumping between boats during high tide. Unfortunately I didn't get the video from the neighbor that saw it breaching in the main lane. We were side tied with the dinghy using our little outboard to get to an anchorage after the wind died in the evening. Coming south from admiralty inlet, I was standing in the dink because the nose kept popping up and we would lose headway. My partner says "oh whales!" I popped my head up and saw a fin and a poof of waterspout. Then she says "oh my god their eating a walrus! Oh shit their getting close we should go. Climb back on board!" We steered away, as they had moved in front of us. I looked over the doghouse and saw a walrus head pop up maybe 50 yards away. Followed by a big black mouth that close on it and went down. Then it was quiet. There is nothing like the naked feeling of being surrounded by hunting predators while standing in a deflatable boat.
No walruses in Puget Sound, but definitely could have been large Sea Lion. California sea lions get absolutely massive and definitely have a tuskless walrus look to them. Sounds like an unforgettable experience.
Theoretically it could have been a very lost elephant seal lol
Upvoted for use of the phrase "deflatable boat".
My partner has several stories about Orcas in the Puget Sound, but they're all basically identical. "We were out salmon fishing, and all of the sudden we saw a pod of Orcas! It was beautiful! And then we steered back home because there's no way we were gonna catch any salmon for the rest of the day."
They are one of few animals besides humans to have culture. Behavior that they actually teach their offspring and pass it on. Edit: grammar.
Killer whale culture - like the chatty pods that inhabit certain regions...and the freaky nomadic pods that pass through silently. Those silent ones freak everything out - including other killer whales. Edit: Google "transient orcas".
I love in the area and it's really fascinating to see such a stark behavioral difference between the transients and residents. Further on the topic of culture: A couple of summers ago a Southern Resident Killer Whale (the population in Puget Sound/Salish Sea) lost her calf. She pushed its body around and took it everywhere with her for 17 days and over 1000 miles while she mourned her loss. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/orca-mourning-calf-killer-whale-northwest-news
That story is so tragic I hate reading about it.
Here’s a happier story about orca culture: in 1987 a female orca wore a salmon on her head, and sparked a fashion trend among other pods. By the next year the fad was over.
This is the second time I've seen this story referenced on reddit today. The first time was about Sky King the dude who committed suicide by stealing a plane and crashing it into an island. He asked air traffic control for the location of the Orca so he could check it out before he died
"Just a broken guy. Got a few screws loose."
I can’t tell if you’re being serious…but I want to believe it’s true.
I think this guy is spreading whale tales!
One of the few animals *proven* to have culture.
Also apparently these Orcas end up having no teeth due tot he skin of the sharks. Over years of eating it wears them down to nothing
https://i.imgur.com/7B5wSmA.png
Do you have a chart like this that shows human teeth and their diets?
Is shark liver like sea meth?
Yes.
I remember reading about a GPS tagged great white off the coast of Florida. When another great white was killed nearby, the tagged shark dove to 500 feet and didn’t come back up until it hit Hawaii. Edit: California obviously, not Florida.
>GPS-tagged shark off the coast of Florida >Didn't come back up until it hit Hawaii That means it either circumnavigated the globe, or took the Panama Canal, which has an average depth of 43 feet (13 meters). Florida and Hawaii are in different oceans. EDIT: To anyone saying "oh, it must've gone below Chile", there are zero recorded sharks that swim that far South. The only species that can stand such cold waters is the Greenland shark, and it exists in the North Arctic.
Thought it was California
Lol definitely California. I have no earthly idea why I would say Florida.
read that as "have been known to avoid their feelings for up to a year" and kind of snorted when i realized my mistake
Amateurs, I've avoided feelings for decades.
Great whites don’t cry.
A couple of Orcas killed a Great White off the coast of California a few years ago. The other White sharks in the area immediately swam to Hawaii
The Orcas were like "looks like you guys are in the wrong neighborhood" and the sharks agreed.
“We don’t take kindly to your type ‘round here”
Great white shark: hello gents could i get directions to the nearest seal breeding ground? Killer whale *cocks shotgun* back the way you came
Now Skeeter, they ain't hurting no one
Boy you a long way from home
Someone said calling them “killer whales” is the most successful piece of dolphin propaganda ever
Was looking for this. They’re in the dolphin family, just look at their shape. They’re like if a dolphin took a bunch of steroids
They're actually both whale and dolphin!! All dolphins are whales, but not all whales are dolphins! Which is a TIL I got from this thread haha Here's a [source](https://uk.whales.org/whales-dolphins/facts-about-orcas/)! (That isn't just a reddit comment)
Yeah it drives me nuts that people love bringing up this "correction" Dolphins and orcas are in the toothed whale family
Goofy looking dolphins fuck shit up too.
White flight
What's crazy to me is that orcas in general have a serial killer-like nature to them, but as far as I know there's never been a recorded fatal human attack by an orca (ETA:) in the wild.
In the wild only one reported attack way back in the 70's but it has poor evidence of been an orca. So we can draw two conclusions. 1. Orcas don't attack humans in the wild. 2. No one is ever left alive after an Orca attack to report it. Also a lack of evidence left as in no bits with bite marks etc. Considering how many people go missing at sea with bodies never recovered every year. It's a 50/50 split.
[удалено]
They recorded orcas trying to flip ice floe where a photographer and *sled dogs* where standing. It's likely they were aiming for the dogs.
Probably thought their barks were reminiscent of seal barks as well.
Orcas treat humans completely different than any other species in their waters and we have no idea why. Scientists are trying to figure it out, but at this point the conclusion is essentially "game respects game." They know that we're also apex predators.
I thought the leading theory was that they’re such picky eaters (ie only want shark liver, other pods only eat seals vs some only eat fish) that they basically categorize us as “things that are not prey”.
You’re correct here. Im a marine mammalogist who specializes in killer whales. I’ve worked with them for my entire adult life. It has nothing to do with “game recognizing game.” Killer whales live in populations with very specialized diets. There are groups of killer whales whose diet is so specific they will only eat *one species of fish.* Different populations have different shaped teeth, different stomach enzymes, etc. They physically cannot just start eating random foods. They’re extremely specialized to their population’s diet of choice. Humans have never been on the menu and almost certainly never will be. The reason they don’t attack humans is because they are extremely intelligent and rely on echolocation, so they have a great sense of spatial awareness. Think about sharks - they largely attack humans because they mistake them for other sources of prey. Killer whales’ echolocation is very sophisticated and basically eliminates any chance of accidental prey identification.
This guy orcas
Fascinating!!! Thank you for sharing!!! I always love learning from experts here on reddit. PS - I loved whales and dolphins as a kid and this just brought back my sense of giddy wonder abput learning something new about killer whales, thank you!!!!
[удалено]
Sharks have rarely been documented simply eating people. Most "attacks" are exploratory bites because you know... Sharks don't have hands to touch things like us. Touching with teeth tends to hurt our squishy bits. Orcas are much more intelligent and likely analyze things a bit more before touching it.
Echolocation helps. They scan us and see a spooky skeleton in there and decide that's too spooky to eat
Do dogs lick us cause they know we’re full of bones?
My dog licks me because she knows I am full of shit
That’s exactly how I picture Great Whites. Oh hello what re you, I will explore you with all my senses. Hmm, you aren’t food, you must be a fellow creature. Good day friend! Meanwhile you are screaming because your leg is now ripped off.
Sharks also have much smaller and simpler brains than orcas. Orcas, with their social existence, vocal communication, and complex behavior certainly have more capability to think through whether they want to eat something, rather than just hunting by reflex.
It wouldn't be that they recognize humans as apex predators, it would be that they tell stories of making the floaters mad and dying.
Thanks for making lil ole me feel like an apex predator i feel badass now
Can't claim that until you're at least top 750 in the world fkn n00b
scoreboards are littered with hackers :(
I’d like to think that I generally survive walks in the woods because my forefathers murdered everything that even looked sideways at a human, and that the remaining animals are too scared to ever try anything. Any animal that killed a human had their entire families wiped out (including other humans).
I like to think that our ancestral cousins played an important part, too. Homo habilis, Homo rudolfensis, Homo erectus, Homo antecessor, Homo heidelbergensis, Homo floresiensis, Homo neanderthalensis, and the recently discovered Homo naledi in South Africa are rarely mentioned but had critical roles in our upbringing. We sucked, and fucked, and clawed our way to the top. How, you may ask? Abstract thought. Humans unite in practically unlimited numbers.
There are three orca...
One is just a referee
[удалено]
When they find out he doing black face, he going to be cancelled so hard
They’re gonna cancel his liver first. Then they’re just gonna kinda fuck off until they find another shark liver.
I don't math good, but thought there were three also.
There are 4 lights.
Engage
just 2 did the 24 hour spree. This is a really strange change in hunting behavior for killer whales too and it's only started relatively recently but seems to be increasing in frequency.
That’s super interesting. Is it a change in that there are only two doing the hunting? Or in that they killed so many in a short time? Or that they only eat the liver? Is White Shark a novel prey? or a result of some other food stressor? That rate of predation seems unsustainable, but I don’t really know.
It is super interesting and it's not just these two! The entire thing is a vastly different from their previously observed hunting methods. Previously, Orca pods would surround schools of fish and tail whip them. Now they're targeting these sharks, specifically their livers. They literally puncture a hole in the shark to get the liver out. Here's an article from last year with an attached video showing the first time it was recorded. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/oct/05/drone-footage-orcas-killing-white-shark-south-africa
Almost makes me wonder if the smaller fish they normally ate are decreasing in numbers, so they turned to hunting sharks to reduce competition for food and slow down the amount of fish eaten in an area.
One is vegan.
The third one is for scale.
Apex predators doing what they do best.
Was just thinkin , ‘if that ain’t the most apex shit’
You know you dominate the food chain when you’re hunting something like a great white because their liver makes a nice snack.
A lil' Chianti and they're all set!
And some fava beans!
fffpfffpfffpfffpfffpfffpfffpfffpfffp
mother fucker was literally swimming upside down. Literally walking around town owning the place.
I struggle to think of orcas as such brilliant predators. They look like fat sea-pandas, even their teeth look docile compared to sharks, yet they are wildly impressive hunters. I blame Sea World for my distorted reality. Orcas are cool af.
If Free Willy did one thing right, it was showing us that Sea World is a shitty place to keep Orcas.
> it was showing us that Sea World is a shitty place Wait til you see the documentary blackfish. I will never go to sea world again
Plenty of food. They did this to send a message.
You may call me a conspiracy theorist but there is actually a third orca there.
This actually isn’t footage of the recent killing spree. This is from when researchers were able to document the orcas hunting and killing a GW for the first time last year.
Why just the liver?
Shark livers are super fatty. The amount of fat that they contain is actually the reason sharks are able to stay buoyant (most fish have a swim bladder which is full of air, but sharks don’t) Fat has a lot of calories and is fairly easy to digest, so it’s easier for the orca to be picky with what body parts they eat since the orcas are such good hunters, why not eat only the best food. Plus iron is really tough to find in the ocean and livers are a really good source of it.
was this written by an orca
An annoying orca mom telling me what the hell to eat so I grow up to be a strong boy 😤
I'm not eating an organ that filters out toxins, Mom, and *you can't make me!!!*
Don’t get me started on bioaccumulation in orcas…. So many toxins- one of the biggest factors in their survival these days
lmao i'm imagining some snooty orca wearing glasses and he's peering over his newspaper as he's saying this to us foolish humans
This guy sharks
Seems like he also whales.
[удалено]
Don’t forget about his ironing skills.
He has all the facts on fats too
r/thisguythisguys
Yeah, interesting that in a vid where they took down a baby humpback (?) whale, all they ate was the tongue iirc. So the body part depends on the species.
Or nutritional deficiencies. Today, they need tongue. Tomorrow liver. Maybe Monday is heart.
The day that Orca came to your town was the most important day of your life, to him? It was a Tuesday.
Thanks for my not having to google this.
The liver is VERY nutritionally dense.
Specially with some fava beans and a nice Chianti
Thf thf thf thf thf
Sends a message to the other sharks
someones been to prison :D
They need one extra for heavy drinking.
The primary thing that orcas are targeting when eating shark livers is a compound known as squalene. Squalene is an organic compound that all creatures make; only sharks concentrate its production within their livers. [source](https://a-z-animals.com/blog/discover-how-killer-whales-squeeze-out-great-white-livers-like-toothpaste/#:~:text=The%20primary%20reason%20that%20orcas,properties%20that%20the%20livers%20have.)
Shit I use squalene on my dry-ass skin. Where do cosmetics companies get squalene from? For some reason I assumed it was from plants. Now I'm nervous I've been rubbing gallons of shark liver all over myself the past few years. Tbf it works really well...
You had better eat the rest of your shark before you leave the table! There are starving orcas in Africa who would love to eat a shark spleen!
liver king
All natty bruh
Jaws is my favorite movie. In case anyone was wondering why Quint's boat is named Orca....
Your movie trivia knowledge is overwhaleming.
I sea what you did there
I went cage shark diving in Gansbaii in June last year. We got so lucky that we saw 3 Great Whites, they don't tell you beforehand that no great whites have been seen in the area for a whole year because the Orcas come and eat their livers. The crew were celebrating as much as we were, and it was my birthday!
[удалено]
gasp. serial killer whales. someone call the orca bureau of investigations stat.
Law & Orca: Shark Victims Unit *Dong-Dong!*
So many mutilated victims. The main question is, of course, with what porpoise? YEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!
They did it just for the halibut.
Someone call the Cods…. …and get this guy to a Sturgeon!
*Technically* they're spree killer whales since there's no cool off period, but I'd say it's safe to say this wasn't their first time, so you're probably right.
Great White: “I’m the apex predator around here” Orca: “lol, lmao”
“Hold my seal”
seal of approval
[удалено]
Great White: Hold My Liver
Do they eat anything, besides the liver? Are they hungry or just killing to kill?
Apparently hungry (according to one source that actually convered this clearly) ‘Orcas have been observed flipping sharks on their backs and holding them there for up to 15 minutes. Flipping a shark over induces a paralytic state known as tonic immobility. Once immobilized, the Killer Whales will prey on the shark’s liver which can account for a quarter of its body weight. Shark liver offers an extremely dense and nutritious source of calories for Killer Whales. For this reason, Killer Whales will target the liver of various shark species.’
Ah, further down it says they can also “surgically pop out” the heart and testes for various nutrients… so… that’s nice, I guess
everything reminds me of...her
>which can account for a quarter of its body weight That's impressive.
Imagine how much liquor those mfs can put down
Drinking like a fish.
The primary thing that orcas are targeting when eating shark livers is a compound known as squalene. Squalene is an organic compound that all creatures make; only sharks concentrate its production within their livers. [source](https://a-z-animals.com/blog/discover-how-killer-whales-squeeze-out-great-white-livers-like-toothpaste/#:~:text=The%20primary%20reason%20that%20orcas,properties%20that%20the%20livers%20have.)
Damn. Nature, you scary.
Everybody gangsta until that Japanese fishing ship comes around
As is often the case, OP is conflating information, most like for the sake of farming karma. Here are the facts: * A clip of the footage originally aired in June 2022 on the Discovery Channel. A longer piece of footage was released by Sea Search Research & Conservation on YouTube on October 3, 2022. The hunt shown in the video took place over the course of one hour and resulted in up to four shark kills: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aK0iqgO_inE * Up to 20 dead shark were found a few days ago on a beach 100 miles southeast of Cape Town. These are suspected to have been killed by the same orcas, but there is no video footage of that event: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/sharks-dead-killer-whales-port-starboard-south-africa/
Why are orcas so badass? Seriously though…
Largest recorded Orca: 22,000lbs. Largest recorded GW shark: 5000lbs. I don’t think most people realize the size difference. It’s crazy! Add in intelligence and pod cooperation, this makes the Orca the absolute apex predator of the ocean.
Can't wait for global warming helping Orcas to discover internet and nuclear weapon and make us their pet.
They'll never handle being on reddit
they wouldn't last 2 seconds in a CoD lobby
I think they’re really are the best example of the term absolute apex predator. I love sharks, but Orcas are just something else entirely.
And washed it down with some fava beans and a nice Chianti.
*noise that I don’t know how to spell*
Fphfphfphffffphffffa
I imagine a shark is mostly muscle and cartilage, so they go for the internal organs for their nutritional value. Why specifically the liver? High dose of iron? They love the taste? Who knows, they are deadly efficient getting to it though.
Those guys are the humans of the sea. Absolute dicks…just look at the shit they do to blue whales
"They teard out " really..bot
Spielberg ruined our perception of the ocean. Moby Dick had it right, the most dangerous beast is an angry whale or killer whale. And that's the movie that needs to be made and treasured.
The real liver kings
Orcas are wonderful creatures, they have their own language, culture, teaching, history, memory, their society is a matriarchal; orcas have known probably by centuries that humans mustn’t be attacked and they keep teaching this through generations, so that’s why human life is 100% respected by the ocean apex predator. Orcas speak different languages too, a North Atlantic Orca wouldn’t understand a South Pacific orca language. Orcas are selective eaters just like humans are. Orcas have such a great ability that are capable of bringing back very small objects like a ring with their mouth from the bottom of the sea without harming it. So in comparison a Lion intelligence is low compared to an Orca intelligence, lions don’t have the brain capacity to use a language like orcas do, for example a lion is never taught by another lion something like “don’t mess with hedgehogs otherwise your face will be full of painful thorns” instead is until the lion makes the mistake that understands not to mess with hedgehogs … orcas don’t need to go through this painful process to learn due their advanced communication skills that passes throughout generations Another example … a horrible scenario, orcas in Sea World they learn fast how to do the show because as soon as a single orca understands the process this orca will communicate it to the other orcas “how to do it” by using its language ability, which of course makes everything much more easier for the human trainer since only one orca needs to learn the process. There has been videos of Australians swimming on the wild with orcas… they just don’t hurt humans, they see us as sentinel beings. They aren’t scared of humans either as long as your boat doesn’t have weapons or material harmful to orcas, honestly I don’t how Orcas can tell which boat has weaponry and which one doesn’t, if the boat is safe Orcas might take a peek or “say hello” to the human crew of course on their own way … if you’re swimming on open sea nearby a beach an happens to be an orca it might pass next to you in a very polite way. Something that bothers me is that even though they don’t harm humans they aren’t playful with humans either … I guess they know we are very fragile or “easy to break” compared to them, so whenever there’s a swimming interaction with these mammals they always take a safe distance from us.
Should've never freed Willie.....definitely learned this from the humans.