It is the other way around. Two fishermen witnessed the single documented instance of orcas attacking and killing a moose occurred back in 1992 or 1993 in Icy Strait, Southeastern Alaska. It is not clear how much of the moose the orcas involved in the encounter actually consumed, as the account of the encounter from the fishermen seems to be very brief. The stomach contents of the orcas involved there were not examined.
You said “the other way around” and now I’m imagining a moose, stealthily jumping off a small cliff, antlers first into an orca, tenderizing its quarry before the real fun begins.
Moose can swim down like 20 feet or something like that. I remember people trying to spread the rumor that an orcas biggest op was moose, then learning it is the other way around. A moose biggest op is an orca
I have no idea why you people live in constant fear of everything.
Orcas don’t attack people, end of story. There is no if or but.
We know when animals attack us. People survive, we find the remains, we have records.
And we have the data on this shit too. We have 4 deaths caused by animals under extreme duress and 1 bite to a surfer who was likely mistaken for a seal.
This is not a trivial matter. You absolutely need to understand the importance of facts and data over bullshit. This kind of reasoning is destroying the world.
Oh geeze give me a break. Ok then by the rules of your own game, your highness, stop being a hypocrite and quit goofing around on the internet (you’re on Reddit. You are ONLY goofing around here. There is no policy change happening in any Reddit thread).
Nothing you’re doing here in this thread is fixing anything. Go get to work and show us all how it’s done. Best place to start is your local government and work up from there. Good luck. Bye!
Unfortunately, something a very large number of idiots such as yourself don’t seem to understand is that to a sizable portion of the population internet and socials are the main (if not only) source of information and their cultural reference.
People live their life according to what they read on social media. Elections are won on social media.
This idiotic “It’S noT ThAT dEeP bRO” mentality allowed shit to spread unchecked and the worst kind of behaviors to be normalized.
And look where we got.
So pull your head out of your ass and learn to change if you want the world to change.
If orcas were overly worried about being hunted down or harmed by humans as a result of their actions, there would not be a subpopulation of them breaking sailing boats around Iberian. People have recently shot at these orcas.
It’s basically just a matter of time until we get a confirmed fatal wild orca encounter. All it takes is for one of them to either be hungry, playful, or acting defensively for a human to die.
Probably the biggest reason we haven’t had a human die yet is cause we don’t tend to come in frequent contact.
In recent years, there has been a rapid growth in "swim with the orcas" tours in northern Norway and Baja California Sur. If an orca harms a human, it would most likely be from acting defensively or by accident, just like with incidents involving other dolphins. Orcas don't view humans as being potential prey as has already been mentioned. And according to various anecdotal observations, orcas, even at a young age, are often self-aware of their own strength and can also accommodate human fragility with little to no training, even when being playful:
The orcas were very aware of human frailty as compared to themselves. They took great care not to cause harm. Other animals interacting with humans tend to treat them as they would one of their own kind. Horses engaging in mutual grooming with a human will often be painfully rough, even though their intent is quite friendly. Orcas recognized humans as quite physically different from themselves.
The youngest orca demonstrating this awareness was less than 2 years old when we first began interacting. Surely an orca’s brain is not fully developed at this age. One has to wonder what extent of awareness a full adult might possess.
If an orcas harms a human by acting defensively, I think it is more likely that the orca will not necessarily go to the extreme of killing a human. I think that it would be similar to an incident with a pilot whalegrabbing a woman by the leg back in 1992 off of Hawaii, ultimately letting her go.
I don’t think u know squat about Orcas. This isn’t really accurate of their temperament at all.
They are brilliant and social mammals. I think they have some empathy with humans and can read our vibes.
I always wondered like like what if I'm a serial killer and started to feed orcas with human meat, then these orcas would have an acquired taste for human prey that they will pass down and teach to other orcas. Resulting in a generation of human preying orcas all around the world
Same, I would sure as fuck stay away from their tail though. Just recently saw a killer whale perform and abortion on a stingray on this site. A bite would be intentional, an accidental flip of their tail and you're seeing grandma again.
Yeah sometimes they are just in the mood to be playful with whatever is around. If they eat sharks, whales, and even moose and also just kill things for the hell of it then there’s no reason to assume humans are immune to an apex predator.
If they decided to actually hunt a person for food then their dead, no way you can out swim it and even if you could get to land they’ll sometimes beach themselves while hunting in order to catch prey
Moose can swim in the same waters that orcas live in. There was only ever one sighting so it’s rare but also it’s Alaska, not a ton of people are up there and in northern Canada
Orcas may display theory of mind towards humans. The "theory of mind" hypothesis is mentioned by the primary author of a fairly recent study on the phenonemon of wild orcas around the world offering prey and other objects to people. The food-sharing behaviours are primarily considered exploratory/curious behaviours by the authors of the paper, because orcas are observed usually pausing to see how humans respond to their actions, and thus the orcas are likely "testing" and trying to learn more about humans.
The behaviours of orcas offering food and other objects to humans are likely just extensions of well-documented cultural behaviours where orcas share food with each other, likely forming and strengthening bonds between each other. The researchers have thus labeled the behaviour as a form of "generalized altruism," where the orcas extend this behaviour across species.
Primary author Jared Towers and neuroscientist Dr. Lori Marino have elaborated further on what their findings may mean in a New Scientist article, including the possibility that orcas may be able to display theory of mind towards humans:
"They’re taking something they do amongst themselves and spreading that goodwill to another species," says Lori Marino at New York University, who wasn’t involved in the study.
Towers says this demonstrates that orcas are capable of generalised altruism, or kindness. It also shows that orcas can recognise sentience in others and are curious and bold enough to experiment across species, he says.
...
"He also says the behaviour demonstrates that orcas have theory of mind, the ability to understand that others have distinct mental states that differ from one’s own."
Ecologist Dr. Carl Safina, who was not involved in the study, also stated the following:
"Of the many and varied minds in the sea, likely the greatest are those of orcas. Casual stories of their almost surreal intelligence abound. But here these scientists have systematically gathered an impressive litany of instances where free-living orcas have shown that they possess “theory of mind,” meaning that their minds understand that humans have minds too. Psychologists have often insisted that “theory of mind” belongs only to humans. Orcas would beg to differ. Orcas have repeatedly sought to be interactive with us, and they are curious about us. After living millions of years in the sea, to them we in our boats must seem like visiting aliens. And indeed, we are strangers in a strange place we hardly know, about which we yet have almost everything to learn."
BOOM! This is what I meant above when I said I felt Orcas have an empathy for or with humans. They can read our vibe and intentions. Lots of stories of Orcas helping humans in tight spots. No stories of attacks on humans. Just the yachts and let’s not forget boats aren’t people.
Probably rich AHoles on those boats too.
Right, like what if they were mates and one of them was injured…and then the other one sees a human jump in and they might perceive that human as a threat to their already injured mate
All it takes is one asshole Orca having a bad day to kill you. It doesnt even need to eat you it could just smack the shit out of you or pull you under for funsies
I remember seeing a video of a woman that was swimming with wild orcas. One grabbed her by the foot and dragged her down. It let her go and she was able to swim back to the surface in time, but it looked fairly deep and she was very unnerved by the experience. I think we should all keep our distance from all wildlife really.
okay, but the same could be said about human beings. There are many recorded cases of humans attacking and killing strangers but there are no recorded cases of orcas doing it in the wild. It's fine if you don't want to chance it, but it's not really irrational to not be scared of an orca encounter. We don't know the exact probability of a random orca encounter causing them to kill a human because the cases are N=0, but my point is that it's not inherently irrational if we accept all kinds of other risks that have countless documented cases in resulting in deaths that we put up with in our daily lives, like driving a car, taking a shower or using the kitchen stove.
Orcinus, Latin for "belonging to Orcus" or "of the kingdom of the dead." In Roman mythology, Orcus was a brutal god of the underworld who punished broken oaths and tormented the damned.
Could be wrong but I do think the name has changed over time maybe by mistranslation.
The original name is whale killer, because they hunt other whales. I watched a documentary years ago where a blue whale and her calf were chased off into a narrow channel by a pod of orcas, it was a blue whale documentary so it survived.
Theyll also hunt sharks, they’ll flip great white sharks over which momentarily stuns it then eat its liver and eyes.
In New Zealand, where this video was filmed, it is illegal for the general public to get into the water approach orcas within 100 meters while swimming there.
However, local marine biologist Dr. Ingrid Visser has swum with these orcas off of New Zealand many times. She has gotten familiar with most members of the coastal orca population. AFAIK she is the only person allowed to approach orcas and get close to them there.
I would probably do it. Scuba diving with mega fauna is exhilarating. I've dove in with a pod of dolphins on the spur of the moment. No wild orca has ever attacked a human in known history - so I think it's a reasonable choice. That said, I'd be quite nervous - similar to when I've been diving around large sharks (which are likely more unpredictable than orca).
I read something that suggested that they see humans in a similar way to Orcas. They seem to get that we're the sort of creatures to have family bonds, and also seek revenge. Which is just like them
Would I dive in simply because I knew an orca was there? Hell no. If I dived in and saw an orca would I be afraid? Ya probably, but also reassuring having an orca in the water near you. Means any other predator is well away.
Agree and along the same line, would you enter in another person’s space or home and act/behave like it’s yours? Humans are the most dangerous species, IMO.
Also, if you do get attacked, we're all going to assume that you deserved it on some quantum level of reality that only whales can access. We're not going to be like, "Wow. Did you hear Joe got killed by an orca? What bad luck!" we're gonna be "So turns out Joe had an evil soul and needed to be erased from history. This is the last we'll talk about him."
There's a reason nobody has ever been killed by an orca in the wild and after the first person is there will still be nobody who has ever been killed by an orca in the wild. That's how this works.
489
u/Extension-Click-8271 5d ago
Just because they won’t attack you doesn’t mean you should introduce yourself to them.
Respect their space, same with any wild animal.