Cetacean Culture

[Mythopoeika]

Tarka masala makes me gag, too.

maximus otter

In your case, that would be cannibalism.

 

[Benzie]

Picture in The Times (uk) today showing an orca battering a bottlenose dolphin in the head. In a 15 minute chase it had been killed by repeated head blows.
This behaviour has been observed for decades of course. The orcas are fickle and will sometimes eat the dolphin and sometimes not. They may toy around with dolphins (eg throwing them high in the air) before killing them.

Gruesome behaviour from these mammals with larger brains than ours.

Dolphins are no better killing porpoises and often not even eating them. One of the places this has been observed is the Moray Firth off Scotland.

Sure, nothing in the sea is off the menu for orcas including blue whales. But, still, all these cetaceans feasting on each other.

 

[Druk]

Picture in The Times (uk) today showing an orca battering a bottlenose dolphin in the head. In a 15 minute chase it had been killed by repeated head blows.
This behaviour has been observed for decades of course. The orcas are fickle and will sometimes eat the dolphin and sometimes not. They may toy around with dolphins (eg throwing them high in the air) before killing them.

Gruesome behaviour from these mammals with larger brains than ours.

Dolphins are no better killing porpoises and often not even eating them. One of the places this has been observed is the Moray Firth off Scotland.

Sure, nothing in the sea is off the menu for orcas including blue whales. But, still, all these cetaceans feasting on each other.

I always wanted to visit flame beach in Patagonia to see the orca beach themselves to grab sea lion,have their ever been any genuine wild orca attacks recorded on humans I wonder?

 

[Kondoru]

Trying to recall where I read an account from the Faroes of a shepherd who climbed down into crevice to rescue a fallen lamb, only to find a couple of orca at the bottom.

Who proceeded to make feints, to get him to jump, then tried to wash him out with bow waves.

 

[Frideswide]

to rescue a fallen lamb

any memory of what happened to lamb?

 

[Frideswide]

But, still, all these cetaceans feasting on each other.

are they closer together than mammals are?

 

[Mythopoeika]

any memory of what happened to lamb?

The price went up.

 

[Benzie]

have their ever been any genuine wild orca attacks recorded on humans I wonder?

Essentially no.

In 1972 a surfer was grabbed and injured on the leg. No certain identification but thought to be a young orca mistaking its prey for a seal. It swam away. There are old stories of revenge attacks on humans but no solid proof.

This is the weirdness. Every predator that can kill humans sometimes do just that given the chance. Big Cats - Crocs - Hippos - Sharks - Bears. Snakes the biggest killers (100,000 humans per year, worldwide) followed by dogs (30,000).

There are no exceptions - except orcas, the apex predator that eats anything from polar bears to the great whales - but not humans........

A Fortean mystery.

 

[maximus otter]

Scientists claim they've had a 20-minute conversation with a whale​

Scientists claim it's now possible to have a conversation with a whale, following a 20-minute chat with a humpback whale in Southeast Alaska.

A 38-year-old whale named Twain 'spoke' with the researchers from the SETI Institute and UC Davis by responding to a pre-recorded 'contact call'.

This marks the first communication between humans and whales in their own language, according to the team.

The scientists broadcast a type of greeting call called a 'whup/throp' through underwater speakers.

When the call was played through the water, Twain approached the boat and responded with a greeting call of her own.

Importantly, the scientists found that Twain was changing the frequency of her own calls in response to the researchers' broadcast.

According to lead author, Dr Brenda McCowan of UC Davis, this mirroring behaviour shows that the whale was engaging in a type of interactive conversation with the recorded call.

Dr McCowan and her co-authors suggest that Twain was motivated to reply by 'excitement and possibly the onset of agitation'.

However, they also point out that the kind of 'behavioural synchrony' exhibited by the whale is associated with bonding and group cohesion.

This, according to the authors, suggests that Twain was actively engaged in a communicative exchange.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/science...ay-pave-way-conversations-aliens-someday.html

maximus otter