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The Predator That Makes Great White Sharks Flee in Fear

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Re: The Predator That Makes Great White Sharks Flee in Fear

#51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On one of the Planet Earth's (IIRC) they showed a seal on a floating slab of ice and the orcas would slap their tails and bump the ice to get the seal to slide off, the seal wore itself out and they eventually drug it into the depths. They're uncanny smart hunters. I wonder if it was curious about you being food and trying a tactic like that? Or just curious in general and indifferent to whether you survived that cur…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBRu3LGceAg they do it to humans too. they are highly intelligent, so the options are vast. so similar to humans, they could be training, teaching, playing, angry, curious, etc.

Thanks for that, they're just incredible!

Re: The Predator That Makes Great White Sharks Flee in Fear

#52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBRu3LGceAg they do it to humans too. they are highly intelligent, so the options are vast. so similar to humans, they could be training, teaching, playing, angry, curious, etc.

Thanks for that, they're just incredible!

and just to elaborate on that specific technique. they will often have an orca coordinate it, likely an older female. that orca spyhops to see the target prey and then signals to the other orcas when to charge the block of ice in formation. they swim fast toward the ice and then dive under right before the ice to send a wave of water over the ice. many times they will intentionally let the seal back onto the ice to be able to practice the maneuver some more. they are also wary of seal bites and prefer to tire prey out. i have even seen one instance where they don't even eat the seal in the end, which indicates they were solely teaching and/or training.

there are other techniques they use which also require high levels of communication. one of which is where they leave one orca behind who stays silent while the rest of the pod leaves the area and starts vocalizing again. (when hunting mammals, orcas stop vocalizing since mammals have good hearing and intelligence.) this relaxes the prey and makes an easy catch for the orca who stayed silently behind. once the prey is caught, the other orcas join back, and the food is shared.

i am personally of the opinion that orcas are the second most intelligent species behind humans and ahead of all other primates. there are examples of orcas interacting with dolphins, even using dolphin vocalizations. there are also examples of orcas working with humans to catch whales, where it almost seems the orcas trained the humans and not the other way around.

Re: The Predator That Makes Great White Sharks Flee in Fear

#53

Orcas are one of the most amazing animals in my opinion. They are extremely intelligent and family oriented. There are some great video captures of Orcas attacking great white sharks by flipping the shark upside down which puts the shark into paralysis and then they simply kill the shark without any resistance. The whole encounter doesn't last more than a few seconds this is how precise and smart these animals are. M…

regarding their familial bonds, they are one of three mammals to undergo menopause, the other two being humans and pilot whales. since orca pods are matriarchal, this further indicates strong bonds and the fact that the older female orcas retire from reproduction duties to share that with the younger females but maintain their leadership roles rather than just dying.

Re: The Predator That Makes Great White Sharks Flee in Fear

#54
post #4

Clickbait title. Actual title should be: [Orcas] Can Make Great White Sharks Flee in Fear

I was expecting the predator to be humans.

Yes, and the headline writer knows this. If the title was "Orcas Make Great White Sharks Flee in Fear", most of us would have nodded and moved on. To be fair, that was an interesting article, clickbait title notwithstanding.

Re: The Predator That Makes Great White Sharks Flee in Fear

#55
The obvious question is, do white sharks of similar size flee from Orcas or ones of smaller size? Otherwise, there's nothing surprising here. There's examples of Elephants fleeing from large prides of Lions, Lions fleeing from large packs of hyenas, etc. Similarly a small solitary Orca will likely flee from a group or a single, much larger, white shark.

Re: The Predator That Makes Great White Sharks Flee in Fear

#56
Orcas eating just the sharks liver is interesting, they have been known to eat only the tongue of whales, leaving the rest of the carcass. I'm guessing for similar reasons, tongue being tasty and highly nutritious to them.

This known behavior was used by whalers who had a pact with a group of orca in Eden, South Wales. In exchange for helping the whalers hunt baleen whales, the whalers would leave the tongue of the whale to the orcas. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killer_whales_of_Eden,_New_Sou...

Re: The Predator That Makes Great White Sharks Flee in Fear

#59

I had a bad experience with a killer whale when I was returning to San Diego from Catalina Island in my rather small Columbia 22 sailboat (this was around 1977). A killer whale jumped out of the water to the level of the top of my mast 4 times. Each time it landed horizontally right next to my boat, almost tipping the boat over with the splash/wave it created. I laid down in the bottom of the cockpit reaching up to s…

They are fascinating creatures, and very curious. I don't tend to worry about them much around here (BC coast), because they do at least have a very good idea of where you are. As someone else mentioned, they very rarely hurt people, despite being hugely capable of doing so.

We also tend to get quite a few humpback whales here. Because they don't echolocate as orcas and dolphins do, and they're massive, I'd be more concerned about one of them accidentally taking me out.

Here's a story (with video) on a local humpback encounter. Make sure you watch right to the end for the mama. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/humpback-wha...

Re: The Predator That Makes Great White Sharks Flee in Fear

#60

I had a bad experience with a killer whale when I was returning to San Diego from Catalina Island in my rather small Columbia 22 sailboat (this was around 1977). A killer whale jumped out of the water to the level of the top of my mast 4 times. Each time it landed horizontally right next to my boat, almost tipping the boat over with the splash/wave it created. I laid down in the bottom of the cockpit reaching up to s…

15' jump height on a killer whale. https://www.reference.com/science/high-can-killer-whale-jump...

This Columbia 22 has a mast height over 30'. http://www.sailingtexas.com/scolumbia22103.html

I don't sail, so I have nothing to prove, but something doesn't feel quite right about this story.

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