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Orcas (or killer whales) are large, powerful aquatic apex predators. There have been incidents where orcas were perceived to attack humans in the wild, but such attacks are less common than those by captive orcas. [1] In captivity, there have been several non-fatal and four fatal attacks on humans since the 1970s. [2]
People who have interacted closely with orcas offer numerous anecdotes demonstrating the whales' curiosity, playfulness, and ability to solve problems. Alaskan orcas have not only learned how to steal fish from longlines , but have also overcome a variety of techniques designed to stop them, such as the use of unbaited lines as decoys. [ 140 ]
When 41 sperm whales beached nearby in 1979, state parks officials burned and buried them. [9] Later that day, Thornton told the Eugene Register-Guard, "It went just exactly right. [...] Except the blast funneled a hole in the sand under the whale" and that some of the whale chunks were subsequently blown back toward the onlookers and their cars.
The tight spaces cause high levels of stress and anxiety which results in violence to other whales and even death of whale trainers. Wild orcas can travel up to 62 miles a day, but captive orcas ...
In such a way they can even hunt much larger animals than they are, such as blue whales. Their complex, matrilineal family groups are often likened to the social groups found on terrestrial ...
Killer whales have reportedly attacked more than 500 boats in European waters recently. Are they exacting revenge for humanity's treatment of orcas?
This can bring seabirds, whales, fish, and turtles to die of starvation with plastic-filled stomachs. Marine species can also be suffocated or entangled in plastic garbage. [35] The biggest threat of ocean plastic pollution comes from microplastics. These are small fragments of plastic debris, some of which were produced to be this small such ...
Female orcas, like their human counterparts, live decades beyond their reproductive years.