Presleigh Adam
3/27/2022
Orcas have always been revered for their majestic beauty, but also infamous for multiple trainer killings in captivity. In 2010, Dawn Brancheau, an expert SeaWorld orca trainer, was killed by the largest killer whale in captivity, a bull named Tilikum, starting riots nationwide petitioning for the release of SeaWorld’s captive killers. They believed the orcas were
“Making a point” by the sudden increase in attacks. Researchers tried to understand what would cause the bull to make such a violent attack against the trainer he, according to other SeaWorld trainers, had such a close relationship with. "We don't know what was going through the killer whale's head," says Chuck Tompkins, Brancheau's former supervisor. (Jeffery K., 2012). Some argue that due to the whale’s “conformed, abusive environment”, Tilikum was victim of a psychosis that caused him to snap the way he did. But the bull isn’t the only orca on record to have attacked or even killed a trainer; ever since the beginning of the captive orca industry, the trainers have been at risk at the hands of these natural predators. The truth of the matter is that orcas are natural hunters in the wild: no whale-trainer relationship can take that instinct out of them.
So what makes the orca such an efficient, powerful, dominant killer? Is it their team work? Massive body conformation? Speed? Intelligence? The answer is all of the above. At sizes up to 11 tons, 50 meters in length, reaching speeds up to 30 mph, it's no wonder killer whales have earned themselves the nickname Wolves of the sea, specifically for the way they hunt in such coordinated packs. Many researchers have concluded that orcas could very possibly be the second most intelligent living creature on the planet, with social interactions and emotions more fine tuned than the human, intelligence unparalleled in an animal of their size and strength. “Orcas show a remarkable level of variation between groups. Like humans, orcas around the world differ in how they structure their social groups, how they behave, how they vocalize, and even what they eat. These group-specific behaviors are passed down from generation to generation, and, as some suggest, constitute cultures. One especially fascinating aspect of orca culture is hunting. Just as a human can be leery of trying unfamiliar cuisine for the first time, orcas exhibit similar culinary caution. Essentially, orcas are picky eaters, and anything they encounter that isn’t on their family’s menu is generally ignored. As such, groups of orcas around the world have developed different hunting strategies, each specialized for their preferred prey. These strategies are so creative, so clever, that it’s easy to see how they earned the name “killer whale.” Though orcas are apex predators, their hunting prowess is not attributable to their size, strength, and speed alone. Their true asset is their teamwork, which allows them to hunt safely and efficiently as a group.” (Eve Copeland, 2015). Each killer whale pod has their own language, matriarchal leadership, preying habits, their own culture. In fact, orcas, though classified in entirety as one species, are divided into more than 10 ecotypes across world oceans: Residents, Transients, Offshores, multiple arctic killer whale ecotypes, as well as an entire strand of southern hemisphere whales, divided by diet, conformation, and pod size.
Northern hemisphere ecotypes | Southern hemisphere ecotypes |
Resident: Alaskan, Northern, Southern | Type A (Antarctic) |
Offshores | Type B (Pack Ice) |
Transient | Type B small (Gerlache) |
Eastern North Atlantic Type 1 | Type C (Ross Seal) |
Eastern North Atlantic Type 2 | Type D (Subantarctic) |
Although we have a pretty good idea of the orcas consistent dietary habits, certain ecotypes, especially the mammal eating transients, continue to surprise scientists with their versatility when it comes to preying on certain animals; one pod of orcas off the Canadian coast was recorded while preying on moose, while New Zealand orcas have made a habit of feeding off of the coast’s abundant stingrays. Each ecotype has their own strategies to make hunting their favorite prey quicker and easier, hunting prey from the smallest fish to the quickest seal, from great white sharks to even the largest creature on earth, the blue whale. As certain pods develop their strategies, they begin to pass these skills down to their calves, allowing the young to observe the adults before trying to attempt the attack on their own, especially within the seal eating ecotypes.
Seals are known as a favorite food among orcas living around the arctic shelf, specifically the Type A and B whales. Seals are extremely fast and agile swimmers, making it very difficult for an 11 ton orca to just try and catch them using purely speed and strength: That’s where the orca’s ingenuity comes in. Between the four main seal eating ecotypes, Arctic type A, Arctic type B, Southern Hemisphere type A, and Southern Hemisphere Type B Large, three unique hunting strategies have been observed and developed throughout pod generations: The Wave Wash, D-day, and Ramming.
Whether or not their prey is in the water, Killers will find a way to capture it. The Wave Wash, originally seen performed by a pod of Southern Hemisphere Type B Large killer whales, earned this ecotype the nickname of “Pack Ice Killers". The goal of this strategy is to capture the seal off a drifting ice floe before it can reach the safety of the water, where it becomes much more mobile and likely to escape. The whales begin by charging the ice floe in a tight formation of 5 or 6 individuals, creating a massive wave front as they accelerate. When they reach the ice floe, they dive beneath it and give one final push to the wave with their tails as it crashes over the ice flow. The helpless seal is overcome by the wave, knocking it nearly senseless into the water where the orcas wait for the easy meal. In some instances, orcas have been observed preforming the strategy a little differently, using a similar formation to create a wave beneath the ice floe to break it apart, essentially implementing the same force on the seal. Orcas have also been observed teaching their young this hunting strategy. “One particularly interesting feature of this strategy is that the orcas do not always immediately kill the seal once it is successfully washed into the water. During several observed wave-washing attacks, a group member captured the seal in its mouth and either released the prey or deposited it onto another ice floe. It is inferred that this unusual behavior may serve as training, social learning, or perhaps as a method of teaching younger group members how to execute this behavior effectively.” (Eve Copeland, 2015). Their prey has no hope against such a coordinated attack, the kind of coordination that makes killer whales such efficient hunters.
Not even the beach is a safe place to hide from a killer. Southern Hemisphere type A, the largest ecotype of killer, is also known to hunt sea lion pups using a unique method known as “D-day” off the Argentinian coast. In this method, a lone orca, typically a bull due to their size, charges the shore using the perfect alignment of the tide, and essentially beaches itself, snatching the sea lion right off the shore. The remaining pod members will then cooperatively swim behind the beached whale, preventing the injured prey from escaping while the beached whale writhes its way back into the water.
"One of the most amazing things is that this is learned behavior," said Howard Rosenbaum of the Wildlife Conservation Society, who has studied the whales' behavior. "The whales actually teach each other how to do it.” (John B., 2010). Adult orcas have been observed quite literally teaching a “class” of young orcas how to perform this strategy. The adult will typically capture the sea lion pup first, injure it, and place it back on the shore for the calves to practice on. The adult will then nudge the calf forward, beaching itself alongside the calf, basically demonstrating how to use the tide to its advantage. The calf, if successful, will pull the seal in just as the adult did, and, with the help of its teacher, draft on the tide back into the water and return seal to the adult, who will either replace on the beach for the next calf, or share the meal with the rest of the pod.
Lastly, orcas use a somewhat basic technique known as “ramming.” Orcas, being the massive animals they are, hunt prey that almost always has teeth, claws, and size to their advantage against them. It’s only through intelligence and brute force that the whales can maintain such a stainless hunting record. To prevent injury to themselves, orcas batter the seal in their possession with head on collisions or by slapping their prey with their tails to stun or kill it. Killer whales have also been observed launching seals into the air using their tails. This strategy is used widely across orca ecotypes, and is often seen targeted against sharks, dolphins, or even some of the ocean’s larger whales like blue and humpback whales. When it comes to their young, this technique may come pretty naturally to a calf and doesn’t require a lot of adult assisted practice. It’s evident that orcas are not only intelligent in their hunting strategies, but also careful.
When it comes to seals, orcas have been observed using three main strategies: Wave Wash, D-Day, and Ramming. Without these intelligent developments, it would be almost impossible for orcas to feed healthily on seals, and with them providing a diet for three orca ecotypes, it’s easy to see how different breeds develop different methods.
The orca tops even the biggest sharks, the quickest fish, and even the most abundant stingrays using techniques unprecedented by any other animal’s intelligence. Three ecotypes depend on these three species: Offshore killer whales, New Zealand killer whales, and Residents. New Zealand killer whales have been not categorized as their own ecotype due to their generalized hunting preferences and intermingling with other pods and ecotypes. Residents, on the other hand, are divided into three strands: alaskan, northern, and southern. “The so-called “Resident” killer whales are fish eaters found along the coasts on both sides of the North Pacific. In the eastern North Pacific, there are three populations of Resident killer whales: Alaska Residents, Northern Residents, and Southern Residents.” Says the Maine Mammal Commission on the resident killer whale’s current state and population, “The Southern Residents, which comprise the smallest of the ‘resident’ populations, are found mostly off British Columbia, Washington and Oregon, but also travel to forage widely along the outer coast. Southern Residents are Chinook salmon specialists. They feed on Chinook year-round, and it is their primary prey in spring and summer when they occupy inland waters. During the fall and winter, when Southern Residents disperse widely, they add other salmon species (Coho in fall and chum in winter) and some demersal fishes to their diet (e.g., halibut and lingcod). Resident killer whales associate in stable matriarchal social units called ‘pods’. There are three pods for Southern Resident killer whales, called the J, K, and L pods.” (Marine mammal commission, no date). Alongside this dominant ecotype in the fish hunting world stands the North Atlantic Type 1, Southern Hemisphere Types B, C, and D. North Atlantic Type A orcas are what can typically be found at aquariums and ocean parks while Southern Hemisphere Type D orcas are extremely rare. Not much is known about this ecotype.
When it comes to sharks, the orca, as a predator, tops even the biggest species, and is the great white’s only natural predator. “Those who say sharks are apex predators, this is not the case, as hard as it is to say its killer whales are a step above.” Says George Burgess, director of the International shark attack file. (George Burgess, 2018).
Orcas usually grow up to 30 feet long on average while great whites rarely top 20, and while great whites are known to be capable of sprinting up to 25 mph, orcas can sustain speeds of 20 mph for longer periods of time. As apex predators, killer whales rival the great white for their efficient killing methods. Even then, it’s evident that the great white poses an impressive threat to the dominant killers. So why bother at all? Researchers have concluded that shark livers contain high concentrations of oils and fats that are necessary to the orca’s diet, especially to the Offshores ecotype due to more limited resources. (Allthatisinteresting.com, 2018). “In a ‘Who’s the Top Predator?’ contest, the orca is the hands-down favorite over sharks. In fact, the great white, the largest predatory shark in the world, has only one natural enemy–the orca. But hunting sharks is a risky business for killer whales. Rows of razor-sharp teeth can pierce even the thickest whale hide. Accordingly, the orca has developed an efficient way to dispatch these sharp-toothed snack items. Using its broad tail, the killer whale pushes the shark to the surface on a watery vortex. It then turns slightly and raise its tail high into the air, crashing it down on the shark’s head. The next part is quite amazing: as though it has some knowledge of shark biology, the orca flips the shark over, sending into a stupor that scientists call 'tonic immobility’. Now paralyzed, the shark makes for an easy (and safe) meal.” (PBS.org, 2014). This well formed, nearly flawless method is what make the killers infamous for their deadly accuracy when it comes to hunting sharks. It’s evident that even as the world’s largest predatory fish, the great white cannot rival the intelligence of the killers. In 2017, 5 bodies of sharks were found on the beaches of South Africa, each killed with the same puncture marks, in the most precise pressure points on the sharks body. The shark is an animal with not much meat on its body, which is why the killers attack those certain places, places that will provide the most nutrition, such as the liver. (Allthatisinteresting.com, 2018).
Orcas may make it seem easy to hunt even the great white shark, but its nearly impossible for an 11 ton animal to track down a single fish just for a bite sized fish, so the fish eating ecotypes have learned how to make fish hunting much more efficient using a method known as the Carousel. They work as a pod to herd schools of fish together, using a combination of air bubbles and belly flashes to group them into a tight ball near the water’s surface. Then they begin to slap this ball with their tails, stunning the fish, swelling mouthfuls of them per sitting. The Southern Resident killers are also known to user echolocation while hunting the abundant chinook salmon during traveling season. The salmon are nearly deaf to the orca’s vocalizations, giving the pod the upper hand when it comes to communicating during the hunt. With the chinook population spanning over nearly 15,000 square miles, the whale’s echolocation must be precise. To help narrow down that massive space, Southern Resident killer whales have learned how to differentiate between salmon species using only sound. How do they do they do this? The answer is the fish’s swim bladder. The swim bladder is an organ in the fish which is filled with air to maintain depth in the water column. The killers, while hunting, send out a series of sounds called a click train, which bounce off the bladder back to the whale: the perfect target for echolocation. The orcas can then determine the fish’s species by the sound waves bouncing back to them. Some researchers also believe that the Southern Residents may also use echolocation to navigate the chinook’s rocky habitat to avoid stranding. Only through their intelligence and creativity that the killer whales are able to make the most out of such a bite sized meal.
Surprisingly enough, pods of orcas off the New Zealand coast have just recently developed a unique taste in the area’s abundant stingrays. But rays, being armed with venomous spines and expert hiders due to their flat, flexible bodies, not to mention their shallow habitat, make hunting them a difficult task for massive, much less maneuverable orcas. So, to make things simpler, these whales have created a method to ray hunting called “The Ray Pluck”. The method requires several pod members to execute. One orca will pluck the ray from its hiding place, while a second whale swoops in with a fatal bite to the head. Once the ray killed and unable to attack, the orca will pin it to the bottom of the ocean floor while another member begins to rip the stinger out of the ray with its teeth, then they flip the ray over into Tonic Immobility, just like sharks. It’s evident that new tastes don’t hinder the killer’s pristine hunting track record.
Orcas aren’t outsmarted or afraid of the animals they’re preying on and goes to show that the orca’s hunting doesn’t only relay on their brute strength and power. The killer whale’s intelligence is unapproachable by any other predator of their size and dominance, intelligence that has been ingrained into their instinct from the beginning of time.
Now we get to what truly makes the killer whale the top predator of the oceans. For a pod of orca, even a shark doesn’t quite satisfy the belly of the massive whales, specifically the Transient and North Atlantic Type 2 killers. Their prey? Other whales. These dominant ecotypes are the largest and most deadly of the entire species, North Atlantic Type 2 killers the largest of the pair, feeding primarily on other whales and dolphins. Transients, on the other hand, are known for their deadly intensity when it comes to hunting. “When Tilikum was wild, he was a transient, not a resident.” Says Russ Rector, a former dolphin trainer who is now a fierce opponent of keeping dolphins and whales in captivity. “Resident whales are the kind that live in a fixed place, while Transients travel around the world, feeding on dolphins, fish, other whales, basically anything that gets in their way.” (Jeffery K., 2010). When it comes to hunting other whales, whales more often bigger, faster, or more agile than they, orcas have developed three dominant strategies to make their hunting even more successful: The blowhole block, the pod pin, and the dolphin flip.
Teamwork and intelligence are the only ways orcas are capable of bringing down some of the largest animals on the planet. They have developed a method called the blowhole block, which can take up to two hours before the prey is drowned from exhaustion or lack of air. The killers begin by circling their prey, typically a younger or weaker whale, leaning on top of the whale, ramming it with their tails and heads, preventing it from breathing, until the prey is drowned.
Orcas then strip the nutrition from the whale, dividing it among the hunters and the younger or weaker pod members, leaving the remains of the corpse for scavengers. In 2021, a group of fifty or more killers were caught hunting the greatest of the whales, the blue whale, off the Australian coast. A boatful of stunned whale watchers witnessed the 3+ hour attack on the whale which occurred in an area known as the Bremer Bay canyon. The whale dwarfed its attackers. And yet, this didn’t seem to phase the orcas. During the first two hours of the attack, groups of 6 to 8 orcas would take turns hitting, ramming, and tugging at the tiring whale, in order to eventually stun the whale enough so that the orcas could drown it. It’s evident that several ecotypes have figured out how to bring down theses massive whales: Just two years earlier, in 2019, two blue whale attacks were recorded in April, just two weeks apart. (Alex F., 2021)
But blue whales aren’t the only incredible prey the orcas dare to go after. The pod pin, which has been observed being preformed by the orcas only once, was targeted at a pod of narwhal off the arctic coast. It has a formation very similar to the Wave Wash, in which the orcas charge the pod if whales, pinning them in the shallow water. After the prey is dead, the carcass will sink: the orca adjust work together to push it to the surface and prevent it from sinking. “The NATURE episode Invasion of the Killer Whales shows orcas using a hunting strategy that had never been documented before on film. This could be due to the fact that killer whales have never had such easy access to a large group of narwhals — the prey animal featured. Narwhals are medium-sized toothed whales who gather to breed amidst Arctic pack ice. Historically, killer whales haven’t been able to access their breeding grounds, but vanishing sea ice has changed that.” (PBS.com, 2014). Since this strategy has only been observed this once, not much is known about the consistency of its performance by arctic ecotypes.
The final whale killing strategy, loosely labeled as the Dolphin flip, is a strategy so far exclusive to the Transient killers. Because Dolphins are able to use their speed and agility to escape the killers, the orcas needed to develop a fool proof plan to capture their slippery prey. Then, in 2013, Photographer Jodi Frediani captured a stunning chase between a pack of Transients and a long beaked common dolphin over a chase that lasted roughly around 45 minutes. The pod then surrounded the dolphin, making it nearly impossible for the dolphin to escape before one whale dives beneath the dolphin, ramming it with its head and flinging it into the air. (Nadia D., 2013). Orcas, when hunting smaller, quicker prey like dolphins and porpoises, use this method of ramming to subdue their prey, but when it comes to slower prey the killers will typically use their massive tails to swat the animal out of the water. “When capturing prey, killer whales use a number of chilling tactics. Some of these, like repeatedly ramming into a pod of sperm whales, are seldom seen. Others, like flipping a stunned creature out of the water and then eating it, are more frequently reported -- but seldom captured in such detail.” (Nadia D., 2013). This strategy reveals a nearly never-before-seen interaction between these two species.
Even the largest creature on the planet, the quickest species of Dolphin, or the most eco-protected oceanic mammal can escape the ingenuity of the killer whale. They’ve taught themselves how to take down every bit of prey they can, but only with each other can they truly be the apex predators they’ve built themselves up to be. The killers ability to take down an animal 4 times their size or twice as fast and agile goes to show how intelligent and powerful the killers truly are, especially together.
Killing and hunting is built into the killer whale’s blood, ingrained from creation. It's what they were designed to do. Though their intelligence, intellect, teamwork, conformation, orcas have developed the most unique and foolproof hunting strategies in the animal kingdom, holding them at the top of the ocean’s food chain.
People have no right to place the blame of orca attacks on the mere insanity of the whales or the cruelty of their captivity. No matter how pampered, well fed, well cared for, well managed captive orcas could be, there’s no way to take away their natural instinct to hunt and work together to succeed. Does this make the orca a merciless, blood-thirsty predator, out to devour any innocent creature they come upon? No. Does this make the killer whale live up to its name in a way that gives it no right to be admired? No. Even in the killing, even in the extreme, chilling hunting strategies orcas have created, beauty and majesty can still be seen through their cooperatively, coordination, and collaboration. They create balance. And most of all, killers demonstrate the efficiency of teamwork and leadership. Every whale pulls their own weight, does the job authority gives them to do. If our current world worked with such order and precision, how much more advanced would our economy be today?
Comments