In The News

[Aspie]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6ou5DqfkZ8#ws

[Cvalda]

You know they're somewhat close to us in intelligence when they enjoy torturing the seals they eat for dinner, evil f**kers

[Aspie]

they look cute... from a safe distance. I'm pretty sure I'd be terrified in open water with them

[Cvalda]

Nah, they recognize a fellow intelligent non-prey animal and don't attack humans in the wild, really.

And then we return the favor by locking them in swimming pools and making them do tricks for food.

[Aspie]

Oh, I know they probably wouldn't harm me.


...but geeze they're huge, and they look like mammalian ink blot tests

[RagingDragon]

Oh, I know they probably wouldn't harm me.

[Aspie]

im sorry but what

[The1PerfectOrganism]

im sorry but what

At least it wasn't furry lol

[whiterabbit]

But Orcas are just as intelligent, if not more, than Elephants. Some of the shit they do is scary. Most of it.

Their social capacity is also jaw-dropping, and their languages, and the fact that each pod has a slightly different language.

But your comments on the nature of how intelligence is measure in animals and what rights we should or should not provide is thought provoking. I'm mostly a vegetarian who prefers to hunt their own meat, but it's largely for personal reasons. I feel like there's a psychological importance for humans to kill their own food, if it's meat, and in losing that we've become a bit different than every human whose gone before us that was forced to kill to survive.

It's a part of our human nature so deeply ingrained, I can't see it atrophying without some psychological side effect. But I'm kind of strange so.

Yea, they are very intelligent but perhaps that is why I don't want to classify them as intelligent. In a way they remind me of US a little too much. Also I think we classify intelligence more so on empathy. It's similar to that bridge a species must cross between sentience and sapience. The difference between thinking and feeling. If Orcas were menacing ugly creatures I doubt there would be much crying for them. At the same time though each group of Orca is very different. If I recall correctly the current North Atlantic pod of Orcas have essentially branched into two operate species of Orca. One fairly docile and the other aggressive and out right dangerous. Some of the attacks are likely related to not appreciating the difference between the species.

Nah, they recognize a fellow intelligent non-prey animal and don't attack humans in the wild, really.

And then we return the favor by locking them in swimming pools and making them do tricks for food.

As far as recognizing us as an intelligent species... I'm not so sure. The lack of attacks could just be that we swim in different environments. At the moment humans and Orcas don't cross paths all that often. Shark attacks are rare because we aren't a normal food item but if killer whales would do the same out of choice is unknown.

[SiL]

You know they're somewhat close to us in intelligence when they enjoy torturing the seals they eat for dinner, evil f**kers

I remember watching a video of a killer whale teaching a baby how to hunt seals on an ice floe ... then they put the seals back on the ice and left.

[Cvalda]

Link?

In lieu of that, here is another sort of heartwarming/sort of oh-no-dont-eat-the-poor-creature vid:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNUlpDLuYUI#

[Gilfryd]

I for one embrace our new cetacean overlords.

[Crazy Rich]

Willy for President

[Rong]

dolfins is coo dey get hella turnt

[Kimarhi]