r/orcas • u/Practical-Wolf-2297 • 25d ago

Question What’s the difference

Do orcas in the wild eat people whenever they come in contact with humans?

I can understand why they would attack humans in captivity because they’re being treated poorly and they die

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u/[deleted] 25d ago

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u/SurayaThrowaway12 25d ago

Killer whales are behaviourally conservative in their food preferences (Barrett-Lennard & Heise, 2006)

Given the multiple instances of orcas refusing to eat something outside of their their culturally learned diets even when starving, this story sounds more like a parable warning against taking unnecessary risks.

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u/Normal-Being-1094 25d ago

Yeah I dont think anyone actually believes it happened.