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Post by neogeneseamonster on Jul 24, 2018 13:18:08 GMT 5
I just watched a footage that Sam1 brought up on "The most fascinating predator-prey interactions" thread and read a short article in the link. The following part was interesting.
Orcas are known to first play with their prey, but strangely, they did not eat the stingray and continued on their way into the blue. Hauser thought it was possible the orcas were putting on a show for the divers, but David Bain of the Orca Conservancy suggested it was some sort of threat display.
Well, it seems the orcas were either playing/practicing hunting with a pelagic stingray (since they didn't eat the stingray) or showing some kind of threat display action.
In both ways, the orcas could have easily done the same thing with divers. If they were just playing with the stingray, why not with a diver? If they were showing threat display actions, why not towards a diver?
Of course, assuming that large marine predators are all aggressive and dangerous to human is just another stereotype. They are animals just like people and are not some kind of "monsters" lurking below the water. But still, their sheer size and strength, as well as their "playing" behavior, make them potentially dangerous to human.
Also, I've seen some youtube videos showing seals taking refuge on small boats to escape orca attacks. The orca didn't even try to do something with the boats or people and just lost their prey so close. These are very odd situations.
Orcas not EATING human is not a very surprising issue but in aforementioned cases, orcas could have physically harmed human for their good (to play, to take their prey back, to warn, etc...). I'd like to know what you guys think!
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Post by sam1 on Jul 25, 2018 12:35:07 GMT 5
Ah, you beat me to this. Was just writing an introductory piece about the very subject, to make a thread about it.
Anyway I think it is one of the great mysteries of nature actually.
Will expand on this later.
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Post by theropod on Jul 25, 2018 22:53:50 GMT 5
Maybe orcas have some level of understanding that it would be detrimental to themselves in the long run to attack humans?
Right now Killer Whales evoke nowhere near the amount of fear or hate in people that for example sharks do, despite being at the absolute top of the food web. I think a lot of that has to do with the general view of cetaceans, especially dolphins as docile and friendly towards humans, even if they are not docile towards other animals in similar fashion.
If killer whales were killing people, that would certainly be a different story (look what only a handful of shark-related fatalities each year does to the reputation of sharks!).
If orcas have enough awareness of humans to cooperate with them while fishing, then perhaps they also understand that humans are more dangerous than they appear.
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Post by elosha11 on Jul 25, 2018 23:20:37 GMT 5
I absolutely believe that orcas have a sense that we are far too dangerous to attack and also probably wouldn't taste very good and provide little energy in return for great risk of human retaliation. I think orcas have that level of sophisticated cognition. They are very cautious, albeit dominant, predators to begin with and generally take every step to avoid injury when attacking prey, even prey far smaller than themselves.
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Post by elosha11 on Jul 25, 2018 23:24:39 GMT 5
Moreover, orcas likely know that being non-aggressive with us, leads to advantages, such as cooperative exchanges of prey (orcas herding whales, in exchange for free meals). Plus there is the potential that they are curious about another quite obvously intelligent but far different creature (us), and may generally have positive feelings even, friendliness toward us, at least as long as we are not hostile.
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Post by theropod on Jul 26, 2018 1:20:59 GMT 5
Agreed, the not-being-tasty part is another important aspect. Humans don’t seem to taste well to other large marine predators either, probably because everything they are used to is much softer and fattier. I suppose that’s a general problem of terrestrial animals, which simply need much more bone at the expense of fat
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Post by sam1 on Jul 26, 2018 1:27:37 GMT 5
Agreed, the not-being-tasty part is another important aspect. Humans other large marine predators either, probably because everything they are used to is much softer and fattier. They eat turtles too |
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Post by theropod on Jul 26, 2018 1:35:22 GMT 5
Point taken.
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Post by elosha11 on Jul 26, 2018 2:12:10 GMT 5
Maybe turtles simple taste good to orcas (lots of humans think so), but human flesh does not, regardless of how much bone/shell is taken into consideration.
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Post by sam1 on Jul 26, 2018 2:53:25 GMT 5
..there's a slight problem to the theory. Orcas never tasted a human  |
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Post by elosha11 on Jul 26, 2018 3:01:59 GMT 5
Oh that's true, you're right. So... maybe taste has nothing to do with it, unless we simply "look" like we'd not taste good.
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Post by theropod on Jul 26, 2018 3:50:30 GMT 5
We probably look like we’ve got very little meat…
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Post by Infinity Blade on Jul 26, 2018 4:07:43 GMT 5
Have they been keeping tabs on what we've done to baleen whale populations over the years?  It would be interesting if they could. But then I wonder about say, elephants. They're smart too, and witnessing what we can and have done to them should teach them that we are a force to be reckoned with, but I'm sure elephants still attack us (even in the wild). It's strange. Of all the predators in the world today, especially among macropredators and apex predators, it's the aquatic predator as massive as a freaking T. rex with a big mouth full of sharp teeth, a powerful headbutt, and a tail that could fling us tens of feet into the air that hardly ever seems to attack and eat us. Except (understandably) in captivity. I guess I'm grateful for that. |
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Post by sam1 on Jul 27, 2018 0:53:36 GMT 5
As a whole, Orcas have taken just about every available life form you can think of..forage fish, big game fish, cephalopods, multitude of ray and shark species (including the GWS, basking and whale shark), turtles, basically every seal species, sea otters, penguins, every whale and dolphin species, including their closest relatives.
On top of this, they have been records of them opportunistically taking a wide array of non aquatic animals such as birds, deer, polar bear cubs, dogs..eh. Something tells me they universally don't attack humans because of our "foul" appearance.
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Post by creature386 on Jul 30, 2018 14:09:54 GMT 5
I alos believe it could be possible that they can estimate us far better than most other animals, but on what basis? Is it because human divers tend to come out of big, scary ships?
Also, one should keep in mind that sharks normally attack humans when they confuse us with seals. Maybe orcas can tell us better apart from seals.
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