#oh man. I hope you're prepared for like - a minor overview paper on them lolol | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

marvelingjules · 4 years

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You made me curious about Orcas now! I would love to know more about them if you're willing to share !

I’ve been really bad at answering asks lately (for a variety of reasons) but look. I am NEVER going to turn down the chance to talk about my absolute favorite creature on the whole planet.

If you ask my mom, she’ll tell you I knew exactly what I wanted to be when I grew up from the time I was two. I’m pretty sure I didn’t have the official name for it until a bit later, but definitely by third grade I knew EXACTLY what I wanted to be when I grew up. I have a very clear memory of it being the beginning of the school year, and we were all sitting on the floor with the teacher in a chair in front of us and we were sharing “what we wanted to be when we grew up” and when it got to me, I said “Marine biologist.” My teacher asked me “Oh, what’s that?” I’m not sure if he actually didn’t know, or if he didn’t believe that I knew what it was, but I (probably far more seriously than expected) replied “they study animals in the ocean, and I’m going to study orcas.”

I wrote a research paper on them in sixth grade. It was actually frustrating because I knew all the information I wrote, but I had to have sources and it was like “ME, I AM THE SOURCE” but no, I had to go grab some books like someone who didn’t know all this stuff already. I think I actually tried to tell my teacher on one of my drafts, that I didn’t need to source something because “I already knew it” and she was like “but it’s not common knowledge so you do actually need to prove it”. I was unimpressed. I mean, I did it, but I was not impressed about having to.

I feel like anyone that knows me pretty well, would read or hear that and just laugh. Me, unimpressed that I have to prove that what I know about something I am really into, is in fact factual knowledge and I know what I am talking about? Me, disliking being questioned about how well I know my own interests?

No one is probably surprised. When I am truly, super interested in something, I rarely get into it half-heartedly

So! Orcas!

IDK what your base of knowledge is on them, so some of this you may already know. They’re considered the largest dolphins, though their common name of “killer whale” makes most people think they’re whales. And I mean, dolphins and whales are kind of from the same branch of oceanic animals, but, the difference is there.

Most commonly, people are aware that orcas live in pods. These are family groups that range in sizes (sometimes around half a dozen or so, sometimes a couple dozen) and they are, in fact, matrilineal (like elephants). Often, calves born into pods stay with their mothers their for most if not all their lives. Sometimes family pods get very large, and kind of split off a bit, and keep growing.

Around here, where I live, a lot of the research that’s most readily available will talk about the pacific northwest pods. These pods are known by J-pod and K-pod and I always forget if it’s L or M for the other pod lol. Individuals in the pod are usually identified with that letter of their pod and some numbers in research. These are, in fact, probably some of the most studied orcas in the world! A lot of the population of orcas is in the north Pacific ocean, really, so that makes sense. Orcas are found all over the world though, and there’s differences in them based on where they live.

Orcas are also a protected species, but there’s specific groups and areas that they are in fact considered endangered (such as the pods in the Pacific Northwest - can’t recall atm if it’s a specific pod or the three of them) and at risk. Often, they’re hunted for their meat, their tongues. Sometimes they’re killed because people see them as competition for fishing. They also die from loss of habitat, from there being less food for them, from oil spills, etc. This wouldn’t be news to anyone, really - it’s the same story all over the world, for many, many species of creatures.

Like humans finger prints, orcas have their own version! Their coloring pattern is very distinctive - black upper body, white underside, and the grey saddle patch behind their dorsal fins. These patches are actually unique to each orca! These markings allow researchers to identify the individuals in the pods and their research and photos. You are probably also aware of how their dorsal fins are different - some are tall and straight, some are shorter and curved. This differentiates male from female, respectively. The coloring of orcas of being black on top and white underneath is camouflage typical for ocean predators.

There’s a nickname for orcas - they’re sometimes called ‘the wolves of the sea’. They’re fantastic predators. Not just as a group hunting, not just with their echolocation, but also in their ingenuity when hunting. They’ll purposefully beach themselves to get seals or penguins in the surf of a beach or the edge of ice in that climate. They’ve also got some pretty varied tastes - salmon is a huge one, but some will also attack other whales, such as blue whales! (They like the tongues, I believe.) Basically - if it’s in the ocean, it’s probably fair game for some pod or another.

I got into a very intense argument with a kid once in either late elementary or middle school. They insisted that a great white shark was the top predator of the ocean. I told him that no, it was definitely orcas.

That wasn’t just favoritism speaking.

There’s an island in the pacific ocean (I think down towards southern California area?) that’s basically known as like, shark island. Great White Sharks just congregate there, tons of them.

Unless they sense there’s orcas nearby. Then they all vamoose the fuck out. Why?

Because there’s an orca pod around there that figured out, “Hey, if we can flip the shark over and hold it there, it’ll die and we can eat it!” And they did, and do.

You ever see those “who would win” books or shows? If they pitch an orca against a shark and say the shark would win, life has shown that it will in fact be the orca, probably.

There’s actually a cool fact there too - there’s three different species of orca. As in - they are different culturally as well as in their genetic make-up! Orca pods that are larger and stay in the same area are residential orcas. They mostly eat fish and some squid. Transients have a much larger territory that they move through, and tend to be somewhat smaller pods... and they hunt ocean mammals. Then there’s offshore orcas. These guys are a little smaller than the others, their dorsal fins are a bit different too. They can be seen several miles out from the coast, and they definitely hunt ocean mammals and sharks.

I can’t remember if it was a transient or an off-shore pod that is feared by the great whites, lol. Either’s likely.

What’s kind of really cool about these different species and subspecies of orcas is that... they don’t interact. Oh, sure, they can be seen in the same waters as each other, sharing space, but... they don’t interact socially or otherwise. There’s thousands and thousands of years between a common ancestor for the transient and residential orcas, in fact! These different types are not just different in how they look or where they live or how and what they hunt... they all have different cultures. Different ways of living, communicating, interacting with each other. Just like not all people have the same traditions and beliefs, orcas have their own differences from each other too!

They’re also super fucking smart. I mean. Obviously. We know research has shown how smart dolphins are, and we see dolphins and orcas perform. And that’s really a huge controversial thing, which I’m not going to really get into here, except to say that...

Consider the size of the ranges of where these orcas live. Even residential pods. The range of the southern residential pods in the Pacific Northwest run from southern Alaska to Northern California thereabouts. How could there be any conceivable way to imitate that type of habitat?

Research, last I looked into it (which was a while back, admittedly) about why dorsal fins bend over like you may have seen, hypothesizes it’s due to poor health, basically.

Orcas are very social. Like I said, they stay with their pods, their families, often for their whole lives.

You don’t see very many orcas in one place in captivity.

Many people have heard about the deaths at certain ocean amusement parks. The human deaths of trainers and whatnot.

In the wild, there’s very very few, if any, recorded attacks of humans by orcas. Far far less than those in captivity.

Orcas are incredibly intelligent, like I said. And like with any intelligent creature, if there’s a lack of stimulation, physically, mentally, etc....

Their lifespan in the wild is pretty close to that of a human, honestly. (Actually, cool fact again: like humans, female orcas go through menopause! They usually have their first calf - in the wild - around 14-16 years old. Around their 40s, they go through menopause and often live for three to four decades after their last calf is born! Studies on this are somewhat difficult; earlier ones show less, but that could be due to culling and shooting of them that was done periodically at the time. More recent studies show those that were around back during those earlier studies in the 70s, many of them are still alive! Male orcas live a slightly shorter lifespan than the females.)

In captivity? They live the average of a decade.

Okay, I lied. I said I wasn’t going to get into it.

I am 100% against captivity for them, if you argue with me on this I’ll just dropkick you into my blocked list, whatever, I don’t care.

Anyway!

Orcas are highly intelligent, playful, and creative creatures. They don’t just show it in hunting, but in their own play behavior. They’ll jump in the waves from boats for fun, jump around while traveling for fun, rub on rocks in shallower ocean water because they like how it feels.

They have very intense and close cultural and familial bonds. Young orcas are taught to hunt a lot like a lot of big predators on land are. Sometimes, their parents will catch some prey for them, usually smaller or injured, and release it for them to “practice” on. Sometimes, they’ll... well, they toss the seals they catch around. (Yes, yes, poor seals. I know. But also, circle of life, you know?)

They help each other.

I know I mentioned they beach themselves earlier. They’ll throw themselves up after prey onto a beach. Catch it (or not! sometimes they miss.). Then, when the waves rush back in, they’ll just... wiggle themselves loose and around so the current helps pull them back out into deeper water. Sometimes, they do get stuck.

You can see this just by searching youtube. But here’s a good one I think that I found. The narration is fun, which is always a plus for me. It’s NatGeo, which is reliable.

But also? It shows not just the beaching technique, but the social, familial connections between orcas (it has an older and younger brother pair) as one teaches the other. It also shows something of that “practice” - or maybe it’s that playfulness of orcas. (I mean, we’ve all played with our food at one point or another! I still make mashed potato volcanos with butter centers. Leave me alone about it.)

Anyway, I’ve loved orcas basically since the time I could start conveying that to people.

Why?

Because I was born in 1992, and Free Willy came out in 1993, and by the time I was two I already was in love. I can still, in the year of 2020, recite that goddamn movie almost entirely. Ask my family what my favorite movie as a kid was, the one I could watch over and over?

There’s three possible ones I could imagine they’d say, and the most likely of those would be Free Willy.

I don’t remember a time I didn’t love orcas, love learning about them, want to center my life around them. I didn’t see the ocean for the first time until I was in fourth grade - so around nine or ten years old. Before then, I had just always told people I wanted to live by the ocean. It always looked so amazing to me - and it was where the orcas were! Duh! That first sight I had of it? From the bus window as we drove to the aquarium?

I can’t think of anything to describe it that isn’t some kind of spiritual experience that could convey the awe, the rightness, the pure happiness that overcame me. It was more than I had ever imagined, to see the endless water - moving and glittering and gray at the time because of the overcast weather. I’m still determined to, one day, live near the ocean. (Bonus, it’d be better for my asthma too, air quality wise!)

(Why didn’t I go into marine biology? Well, it’s a sad story of “I was 14, an adult told me that as a woman I’d never end up getting to do anything in the field anyway, and I’d have racked up all those student loans for nothing, and I hadn’t yet discovered that any adult who says ‘you’re a girl so you can’t’ needs to be aggressively shoved off the fourth floor of a building”.

I love being a librarian. I love helping kids find books, learn about topics, read to the little ones, help the parents learn how to read to their kids, etc. I love my job.

And I still, a few times a year, can’t help but wonder. What if I hadn’t given up on it? What if I had gone that route? Where would I be? Who would I be? What might I have discovered more?

But then, if I did that, I wouldn’t be where I am now, and know the people I do, and that would be its own loss.

I like to imagine though, that there’s a universe out there, where I did go out and become the marine biologist I was determined to be my entire childhood, and you know what? I bet I am fan-fucking-tastic at it. And happy.)

So, even though I didn’t end up going into marine biology to study orcas, my absolute favorite animal in the entire universe, I still love them. I still, every once in a while, look up research on them to see what’s new, what’s changed, refresh my knowledge. I’ve never seen one, but I hope to one day - I think it’ll be even more of an awe-inspiring, crystal clear moment of my life than seeing the ocean for the first time. And of my five tattoos? Two are orcas, and I of course plan to get more. Why not decorate my skin with something that has always, since I was so so small, brought me joy and happiness?

TL;DR: I just really really fucking love orcas.

#Jules replies #stereden #oh man. I hope you're prepared for like - a minor overview paper on them lolol #and some little anecdotes about me because it's hard to talk about all I know of them and not talk about me too lolol #Jules rambles #orcas #you know that domino meme of a small one leading to a big one? that's probably how my mom feels about me and orcas lol

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