The "Killer" in Killer Whale is a very apt description. They are the uncontested masters of the sea. The only animals that stand a chance against a pod of killer whales are humans. They routinely hunt and destroy Great White Sharks that stray in to their territory and sharks have been recorded fleeing from regions occupied by Orcas. Orcas are known to prey on almost all other marine mammals from small seals to blue whales.
That said, we really shouldn't fuck with Orcas. They're very smart, they can pass knowledge between individuals and generations and occaisionally between pods, and if the pods start deciding to do something about us they could kill a lot of people before the inevitable retaliation. Orcas have never been recorded having a deadly interaction in humans except in circumstances where they were enslaved in aquatic parks, but I feel like that accordance of respect could be rescinded very quickly.
I bet you marine biologists in the region could tell you which pods these are and whether they're resident (mostly feed on fish and other small animals) or transient (mostly feed on marine mammals including whales) pods.
I do think the world's Orcas must have some kind of special awareness of humans. They're really smart, and I'm not aware of any other large predator that has never been recorded preying on humans, even incidentally or under exceptional circumstances. The simple fact that there has never been a verified fatal Orca attack seems like it must mean something, because if they wanted to they could take humans with no trouble at all.
It's very likely that they're not organizing a revolution and are hanging out for some other reason. The Orcas might even be hunting the other whales. Hell, the other whales might be grouping up as a defense against the Orcas. Orcas around the world tend to be divided in to populations that primarily hunt fish, cephalpods, and sometimes small mammals, and populations that primarily hunt whales and other larger marine mammals
The "Killer" in Killer Whale is a very apt description. They are the uncontested masters of the sea. The only animals that stand a chance against a pod of killer whales are humans. They routinely hunt and destroy Great White Sharks that stray in to their territory and sharks have been recorded fleeing from regions occupied by Orcas. Orcas are known to prey on almost all other marine mammals from small seals to blue whales.
That said, we really shouldn't fuck with Orcas. They're very smart, they can pass knowledge between individuals and generations and occaisionally between pods, and if the pods start deciding to do something about us they could kill a lot of people before the inevitable retaliation. Orcas have never been recorded having a deadly interaction in humans except in circumstances where they were enslaved in aquatic parks, but I feel like that accordance of respect could be rescinded very quickly.
I bet you marine biologists in the region could tell you which pods these are and whether they're resident (mostly feed on fish and other small animals) or transient (mostly feed on marine mammals including whales) pods.
I do think the world's Orcas must have some kind of special awareness of humans. They're really smart, and I'm not aware of any other large predator that has never been recorded preying on humans, even incidentally or under exceptional circumstances. The simple fact that there has never been a verified fatal Orca attack seems like it must mean something, because if they wanted to they could take humans with no trouble at all.