
New Type Of Killer Whale Found Swimming In Southern Ocean - dang
https://www.npr.org/2019/03/07/701101633/new-whale-species
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nikofeyn
orcas are awesome, to me, because they showcase cooperation, intelligence, and
success unheard of in the animal kingdom. other than humans poisoning them,
killing off and poisoning their food supplies, and hunting them, they have no
predators or anything preventing their success. they are truly amazing.

i would even argue that they don't "fight" great whites. orcas are faster,
larger, and significantly more intelligent than great white sharks. it seems
it is an easy enough kill for the pods that know how to hunt them. in fact,
great whites off the coast of south africa have been known to leave the area
when orcas arrive. that's right: great whites are seemingly afraid of orcas.

it is sad to me humans don't understand them more and still capture and
enslave them for entertainment. we also are wreaking havoc in their ecosystems
and food sources. they showcase intelligence i am not aware of in any other
animal besides humans.

for example, there is a technique they use such that they trick prey that they
are leaving. normally, mammal hunting orcas stop vocalizing when hunting. so
by leaving the area and vocalizing after an unsuccessful hunt, they relax
their prey by signaling they've given up. however, they have communicated to
each other to leave a single orca behind that stays silent to catch the prey
once it relaxes. then the rest of the pod comes back to share.

~~~
gpderetta
Apparently they train humans to hunt for them:

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killer_whales_of_Eden,_New_S...](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killer_whales_of_Eden,_New_South_Wales)

~~~
mojomark
Holy crap - that's totally what happened. Fascinating...

"[Killer whale nicknamed] Old Tom's role was commonly to alert the human
whalers to the presence of a baleen whale in the bay by breaching or
tailslapping at the mouth of the Kiah River, which is one of the smallest
rivers... This role endeared him to the whalers and led to the idea that he
was “leader of the pack,” although such a role was more likely taken by a
female (as is typical among killer whales)".

~~~
blotter_paper
Too bad the humans fucked it up by breaking the deal:

>Old Tom forced a small whale to the surface, where Davidson harpooned it.[1]
Because he wanted to get off the water before a storm arrived, Logan attempted
to bring the carcass ashore without Old Tom eating the tongue and lips.[9] Old
Tom apparently grabbed the tow rope in his mouth and lost some teeth in the
struggle,[7] with Brooks recounting that Logan said "Oh God, what have I
done?" when he realised that Old Tom had lost teeth.[1]

>When Old Tom's corpse washed ashore in 1930, the mouth had abscesses from
missing teeth and he may have died of starvation.[7][9][1]

~~~
nikofeyn
it really sickens me how much pain humans bring to the world through
selfishness. i had heard of the cooperation story and old tom before, but not
the conditions of this particular incident and his death. it seems the orcas
in his pod disappeared after being hunted by whalers soon after, according to
the wiki article.

~~~
abugheratwork
Be fair. We can bring a lot of pain through cooperation. Cooperating with the
orcas seems like a good example.

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nickgrosvenor
For whatever reason, Orca's are an unusually fascinating subject.

If there is an article about orca's, I'm gonna read it.

The only thing more interesting than an orca, is an orca fighting a great
white.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9I_DcSbZjI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9I_DcSbZjI)

~~~
oh_sigh
Awesome amature animal analysis but the alliteration from the announcer is
awfully annoying

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samstave
Thanks.

I love killer whales. I also love that its called a "Type D"

Sounds like a different spec setting for "killer"

I wonder, as killer whales are dolphins, if this may be a
porpoise/dophin/killer-whale derivative?

I also wonder if the shape of the head, being more rounded, has to do with its
sonar capabilities. Perhaps associated with the range, or the spread of its
ability to detect/stun critters with sonar.

~~~
sandworm101
"Killer whale" is a mistranslated. Nobody ever really thought of them as
whales. In english, "killer whale" means a whale _that is_ a killer. French
and english swap words and this moved from french to english without the swap.
The proper translation should have been "Killer of whales" or "whale killer",
the thing that kills whales.

~~~
blahedo
This seems like a folk etymology, and a dubious one at that. A quick
investigation of support turns up a Wikipedia article that's cited to an
about.com post that's cited back to the Wikipedia article (where they claim a
Spanish etymology), and the Spanish-language article on the topic is cited
back to the same About.com post. :P

~~~
sandworm101
There is knowledge beyond wikipedia. I still trust books

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puranjay
One of my favorite visual stories about Orcas and Sperm whales

What makes it even more special is that I've been to the exact spot and seen
pods of Sperm whales (sadly, no Orcas)

[https://www.theguardian.com/environment/gallery/2017/mar/29/...](https://www.theguardian.com/environment/gallery/2017/mar/29/sex-
death-sperm-whales-orcas-indian-ocean-in-pictures)

~~~
nikofeyn
that's awesome. thanks for sharing that. orcas and whales have some complex
relationships. i have seen some research suggesting that humpback whales have
begun interrupting orca hunts, even when they're hunting other species and not
necessarily humpback whales.

at the end of the story you linked, it seems the orcas did their wave dashing
technique on the boat. this has been filmed with the bbc crew having it done
to them as well. the orcas had just finished off a seal i believe, and did the
same technique with the filmers in the boat.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBRu3LGceAg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBRu3LGceAg)

it looks like they were just halfheartedly doing it, so i am curious if they
were sending a message or just training or experimenting.

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dang
Also
[https://www.apnews.com/355cf8f5397f439d993431328cbf2bfa](https://www.apnews.com/355cf8f5397f439d993431328cbf2bfa).

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burtonator
My understanding is that we think Orcas are speciating already with some
focusing on hunting seals and others hunting salmon and they don't have
overlapping hunting grounds.

Additionally they seem to differentiate and prefer their 'own' type so we
might be actually witnessing a new species there in and of itself.

~~~
idlewords
It's hard to be sure this is speciation because orcas teach each other to
hunt. So these differences across populations could be cultural!

~~~
nikofeyn
orcas definitely have culture, but these type d really look quite different
from other orcas. in an article i read about these type d orcas, it mentioned
that scientists have considered before whether the other types should be
separate species or not. to my knowledge, they do not interbreed between
types, and if they do or can, it is rare. there are other orca types that are
still poorly understood, including the offshore orcas in the pacific
northwest.

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mykowebhn
This reminds me of the pygmy sub-species of Blue Whale that live in the Indian
Ocean.

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ocdtrekkie
"The team was able to snip off small tissue samples from the whales by firing
a harmless dart, attached to a line, into their skin."

Is it just me, or does shooting them with a projectile that tears out some of
their flesh seem to not be "harmless", inherently?

~~~
bdamm
Or is it more akin to a biopsy? Not harmless, but very unlikely to be more
harmful than a scratch.

~~~
soperj
Scratches can be harmful though, they're an easy vector for infection.

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flokii
Truly stunning animals. But why don't they fling us through the air when given
the chance..

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vaq4pHxM5P4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vaq4pHxM5P4)

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chriselles
Very interesting.

Always fascinated by the Orca species.

It’s my understanding there has never been a reported killing of a human by
Orcas and that they possess a very interesting and not entirely understood
brain.

Apex ocean predator, hunting in packs.

~~~
StephenMelon
Maybe never reported in the wild?

[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8535618.stm](http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8535618.stm)

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smnplk
Nature is frightening. There was once a creature swimming in the ocean that
even Megalodon feared.

~~~
smnplk
Did my quick research. Actually I was wrong. Mosasaurus lived in a different
era and adult Megalodon would probably be larger, so looks like Megalodon had
no real threats.

